On Chiromancy

at that moment. But when you find the left hand with more perfect and more colorful lines, and they surpass the lines which are in the right hand, then form your judgment from the lines existing in that same left hand. It is, in fact, a sign that the celestial virtues were more perfectly operative at the hour of conception than at the hour of the birth of such a person, and this especially when they use the left hand just as duly as the right, that is, when they are left-handed, having the left for the right. Observe, however, that when you find the mensalis line proceeding to the summit of the Mount of Jupiter ♃ with two perfect branches, and the branch which turns toward the index finger makes or produces a cross ✚, even if the person himself is not religious, he will nevertheless have something useful through the agency of religious persons. But if it were to produce a single star, it would be a sign that such a man would have merited so much favor with some great prelate that he could never be separated from him, and he would be as if that most powerful man considered him his other self. However, when the other branch of the same line tends toward the thumb and is joined at its beginning with the medial and vital lines, it is a sign that such a man will acquire many riches by his own ingenuity. But if the said branch has made a conjunction with the small fissures which signify the discord of brothers and relatives, and they have made such a union that they all appear as one together, it will signify the opposite: namely, that the man is to be helped by his relatives and will acquire riches on their account and will ascend to some degree of dignity. Let it suffice that we have spoken thus far on these matters in general; now, one by one, we shall subject the exposition of all the lines and signs, with the figures of the hands appended, briefly and openly.