On Chiromancy

And since the aforementioned lines have three principals among themselves, which sometimes appear doubled and separated from them, these are sometimes continuous, but at other times broken and discontinuous, just as we frequently observe in their appearances; and since each one of them is called the sister of such or such a line, all these things will be most clearly revealed in this little work, which we shall call the theory of the science and art of chiromancy. And we shall divide it into diverse treatises, speaking of the aforesaid mounts, lines, and small branches, which nature has produced in the hand of man and which produce significations from the diversity of accidents occurring in human bodies. All things happen, moreover, from the diverse power and influx of celestial bodies upon these lower things, as Ptolemy also asserts, as well as Ali Albumasar. We shall then divide the treatises themselves into SEVERAL, describing the lines of each hand and declaring their significations much more clearly than in the preface. But because we must first begin with the natural lines, which signify by their power the virtue of the three principal members in the human body: the first of these is the heart, which is the principle of life. The second is the liver, which is the cause of the heart’s vivification; for it digests food and rectifies the blood, bringing nourishment to the heart. The brain is the third, which brings motion and intellect to man. We shall therefore begin from the aforesaid lines in this manner: the human hand was made by nature as the instrument of instruments and the organ of organs in the human body, just as all those who philosophize assert, and especially Aristotle; for its office is [to serve] all of human...