CHIROMANCY.

£7,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

A fascinating, unique and unpublished manuscript treatise on chiromancy or the art or science of palm-reading (as it is called in the first chapter), illustrated with a detailed chart of the hand noting the chief lines and regions of planetary influence. The treatise itself maps the different lines of the hand, dividing these into vital, cephalic, hepatic, etc. the three main lines were thought to correspond to the heart, brain and liver and then notes the prognostications that can be derived from their intersections and different features. These range from the predictable a long line without intersections or points indicates a long life to the alarming: an X-shaped cross on the hepatic line means that death is near. Otherwise the prognostications mostly concern character: choleric, faithful, bold, of good counsel and subtle intellect, etc. The author then considers the regions created by the intersection of lines, including the triangle, as well as a series of features of the hand s geographical, which corresponded with the planets: Cingulus Veneris, Via Solis, Monte Mercurii, etc., the mountains being the bumps at the base of each digit. There is also a section on the signs of the planets, which are divided into benign and malign aspects, or felix and infelix. A benign Saturn portends skill in agriculture and metalwork, but is particularly bad when negative, promising various named illnesses such as catarrh and hydropsy, melancholia, misery, imprisonment, great peril to lif

• Binding: Hardcover

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