The Middle Ages frequently reproduced the signs of the zodiac and the occupations corresponding to each month of the year. They were sculpted on church portals, painted on stained glass windows and on the vellum of manuscripts. These two themes allowed medieval man to walk on the earth while looking up to the sky and to recall the complexity of the links between the two. The occupations of the months, associated with the earth, resonate with the signs of the zodiac, associated with the sky.

 

"Man has both heaven and earth in himself". Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).

"I drink ; I burn wood ; I remove the superfluous from the vine ; I give the pleasant grass ; the flower depends on me, and I on the meadow ; I inflect the hay ; I harvest the crops ; I drink the wines ; I cast the seeds to the ground ; I graze the pigs ; I kill the swine." Anonymous poem from the 11th century.