On Chiromancy

¶ By the most excellent and singular

man, most highly practiced in palmistry,

Master Andreas Corvus of Mirandola,

to the most illustrious Giovanni

Francesco, the well-deserving Marquis

of Mantua: a most rare work

intended for that same

faculty of palmistry.

Although the art of palmistry original: "chiromantica," the study of the lines and features of the hand to predict the future or character was gathered from the most excellent school of philosophers, we shall distinguish it through written theories and diagrams of hands with their lines into various chapters, along with their "mounts" the fleshy cushions at the base of the fingers and small furrows which can occur in the hands. From these, we recognize various meanings indicating various effects. First, therefore, we ought to know that the human hand is divided into five fingers, of which we call the first—consisting of two nodes or joints—the thumb original: "pollicem".