Intersex Across the Interstellar: The Andromeda Constellation in Medieval and Early Modern Astronomical and Astrological Treatises

ABSTRACT

This article examines the iconography of the Andromeda constellation as an intersex figure within medieval and early modern astrological traditions. It focuses on the origins of this imagery in the thirteenth‐century astrological writings of Scot and its reappearance nearly three centuries later in Ratdolt's illustrated 1482 edition of Hyginus' De astronomia . Tracing the transmission of Andromeda's intersex iconography from Scot's textual formulation through the illustrated manuscript tradition and into print, the article explores why this visual configuration persisted despite changes in textual authority and medium. It argues that questions of sex, sexuality and bodily difference became embedded within astronomical and astrological understandings of the cosmos, which were widely believed to shape human bodies and behaviours. While previous scholarship has explained Scot's interpretation as the result of linguistic confusion, visual misidentification, or etymological speculation, this study argues that the intersex depiction of Andromeda became intelligible within broader medieval and early modern discourses concerning the body, sexuality and celestial influence. By situating the iconography within contemporary theological, astrological and visual traditions, the article demonstrates how celestial imagery functioned as a site for negotiating bodily difference and cosmic order and highlights the epistemic role of images in transmitting astronomical and astrological knowledge.