The zodiac chart in medieval medicine is associated with which field?

• A. Astronomy
• B. Astrology
• C. Cartography
• D. Anatomy

Answer: (B)

Medieval medicine used astrology. The zodiac chart was treated as a tool to read how celestial positions could influence a person’s health, guiding diagnosis, prognosis, and the timing of treatments. Practitioners believed the signs of the zodiac and their ruling planets affected the body and its humors, so readings from the chart helped decide when to bleed, what remedies to use, and how a disease might progress. Astronomy, by contrast, studies celestial bodies as objects in space; cartography maps surfaces on Earth, and anatomy studies the structure of the body—none of which provide the medical readings that the zodiac chart offered in this tradition.