MINIATURIST, Spanish
(active 1270s)

Libro de Astromagia, folio 23v

1276-79
Manuscript (Reg.lat.1283.pt.A), parchment
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana

The picture shows folio 23v containing a circular miniature with Luna in the centre. Luna is personified by a woman riding a hare.

In the 13th century, foundational treatises established the visual tradition of planets as personified figures riding specific animal mounts. In these manuscripts, the animals chosen as mounts were not random; they were complex allegories linking the speed, behaviour, and physical properties of the beast to the astrological influence of the planet.

The image of Luna as a woman riding a rabbit (or a large hare) is prominently solidified in 13th-century astrological portraiture. The hare was chosen to represent the sublunary world's rapid reproductive capacity, cold moisture, and swiftness (as the Moon was the fastest-moving celestial sphere in the medieval cosmos).