On Chiromancy

[to serve] the parts of the body. By this reasoning, the power of all members concurs in human generation. And so it has already been said that the complexion of the entire human body is observed in the hand. Therefore, each individual member has imprinted upon it some sign, whether great or small, according to the power or virtue of that member; and for this reason, the hand itself is marked with diverse lines and small creases, from which the chiromancers themselves judge the complexion of a person and all other accidents that occur in human life, just as from signs made by nature at the beginning of human generation due to the virtue given to the hand by all the members. Someone might inquire at this point why there are four principal lines in the hand, since there are only four principal members in man for the governance of the body and the preservation of life itself. These are the heart, which, as we have said, is the principle of nourishment, of the restoration of the entire body, and likewise of natural heat. The second is the liver, which is the principle of nourishing, rectifying the blood, and restoring the whole body. The third is the brain, which gives the body the principle of sensation and gives man motion. Therefore, each of these has a sign in the hand. The heart, indeed, by its own virtue, produces a line in the hand called the line of life, or of the heart, signifying the heart itself, the principle of life. By it, we know how much time a man will live and how many illnesses he will have. In the same way, the liver also produces its line just as the heart does. It arises from the descent of the hand, or from the wrist, and it is often joined at its beginning with the line of life; on the other side, it is joined with the line of the head or the middle [line]; sometimes it ends there, sometimes...