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since they believed that lust flowed from it. Others, however, made it sacred to Jupiter, because in ancient times Jupiter was worshiped in the temple of Ammon in the form of a navel. The liver, they said, was dedicated to Venus, and thus astrologers have declared that this organ is ruled by that planet. Poets have even placed the seat of love in the liver, as this common distich testifies:

The heart understands, the lungs speak, the bile stirs up anger,

The spleen causes laughter, and the liver compels one to love.

Furthermore, astronomers placed not only the liver but also the kidneys and the reproductive organs under the dominion of Venus. Finally, they dedicated the knees to Mercy and the feet to Mercury; for this reason, those seeking mercy were accustomed to kneel.

But astrologers proclaim that not only the planets but also the signs of the Zodiac rule over individual parts and members of the human body, as the power of the heavens operates on specific limbs through a certain similarity of name. Thus, Aries is said to claim the head for itself, as the great strength of this animal resides in its head. The neck is attributed to Taurus, because the bull exerts its power through its neck. The arms are assigned to Gemini because of their symmetry, for twins are usually alike. The chest is suited to Cancer because of the animal’s shape, as the back of a crab mimics the breadth of a chest. According to Manilius, the hips belong to Libra because they hang from the trunk like a pair of scales—though according to others, they are attributed to Sagittarius. Thus it continues: Leo rules the sides, Virgo the flanks and belly, Libra the navel, loins, vertebrae, and pubes, Scorpio the genitals, Capricorn the knees, Aquarius the shins, and Pisces the feet.

Next, according to Pietro Crinito, astrologers assigned the neck and head to the Sun, the mouth and tongue to Mercury, the spleen to Saturn, the liver to Jupiter, the blood to Mars, the kidneys and reproductive organs to Venus, and the stomach to the Moon. Therefore, to express the dominion of both the planets and the signs of the Zodiac over human limbs, the ancients depicted a naked man in the center of a circle decorated with the twelve signs. In this image, Mercury was depicted on the tongue, Saturn in the region of the spleen, Jupiter in the region of the liver, Mars in the heart, the Sun in the brain, the Moon in the stomach, and Venus in the genitals.

# Prodigies

We have decided that the more remarkable prodigies—specifically those in which human parts or their likeness are mentioned—should be recorded here. First, according to Pliny, in the year of the world 3368, while the foundations for the temple of Capitoline Jupiter were being dug in Rome, a human head spattered with fresh blood was found. When the soothsayers were consulted about this, they replied that this site would become the head not only of the Roman Empire, but of the entire world. Julius Obsequens also recounted this in his *History of Prodigies*. Bugatus also reported that before the death of Bernabò Visconti, not only did his palace burn, but a human head was seen among the globes of flame for some time, as if being cremated. When Nero's house was struck by lightning, the heads of the statues of the Caesars fell off; from this, the seers foretold that the lineage of the Caesars would end with Nero.

Similarly, in the year of our Lord 1545, in the city of Argelia, the head of a statue representing the Duke of Saxony was cast down from a citadel by the force of a storm; in that same year, Duke Henry of Brunswick, while attempting to reclaim his ancestral kingdom, was captured and defeated by the Duke of Saxony. Likewise, as Galba was entering the province of Hispania Tarraconensis and sacrificing before a temple, it happened that the head of a young boy among the attendants suddenly turned white. Warned by this prodigy, the soothsayers predicted a future change in the state of affairs. Nicolaus Orius, in a letter to Bovillus in 1508, also reports that a human head crowned with a papal tiara was seen in the air; the explanation for this prodigy