Palmistry, the art of reading fate and character from the lines of the hand, enjoyed a precarious place in Renaissance Europe. Officially condemned by the Catholic Church as a pagan superstition and classed among the “seven forbidden arts,” chiromancy nevertheless thrived in the shadows, circulating in clandestine texts that blurred the line between medicine, divination, and magic. Antonius Picciolus (d. 1632), a Bolognese jurist, here offers one of the more substantial treatments of the subject, a three-book treatise dedicated to the illustrious Lothario de’ Conti.
Published in Bergamo in 1587, this edition has all the hallmarks of a surreptitious work: printed on coarse paper, with modest typography, and doubtless distributed discreetly. Its very materiality betrays the anxious status of its subject. The folding plate, here present, though with a neatly mended tear and slight loss, depicts the hand in diagrammatic form, mapping the mysterious correspondences between flesh, planets, and fate. For Renaissance readers, such images were as much instruments of knowledge as they were talismans of forbidden insight.
Survival of the book is scarce, perhaps due to ecclesiastical disfavor or simply the fragility of its production. This copy, though browned throughout (as typical, owing to the poor paper), preserves the full text, with the final index supplied in facsimile. Bound in 18th-century Italian paper boards, its worn but sturdy spine is a reminder of how such illicit volumes were passed hand to hand, their knowledge both treasured and suspect.
Antonius Picciolus (Antonio Piccioli). Antonii Piccioli seu Rapiti Renovati Cenetensis Iurisconsulti, Ad illustrissimum Lotharium de Comitibus, De Manus Inspectione Libri Tres. Bergomi [Bergamo]: Expensis Joannis Batistae Ciotti Senensis. Small 8vo. †4, A–N8, O4. Lacking O2–3 (index, supplied in facsimile); O4 blank. Folding plate with mended tear and slight loss. Uniform browning throughout. Bound in 18th-century Italian paper boards, spine worn but sound.
Palmistry, the art of reading fate and character from the lines of the hand, enjoyed a precarious place in Renaissance Europe. Officially condemned by the Catholic Church as a pagan superstition and classed among the “seven forbidden arts,” chiromancy nevertheless thrived in the shadows, circulating in clandestine texts that blurred the line between medicine, divination, and magic. Antonius Picciolus (d. 1632), a Bolognese jurist, here offers one of the more substantial treatments of the subject, a three-book treatise dedicated to the illustrious Lothario de’ Conti.
Published in Bergamo in 1587, this edition has all the hallmarks of a surreptitious work: printed on coarse paper, with modest typography, and doubtless distributed discreetly. Its very materiality betrays the anxious status of its subject. The folding plate, here present, though with a neatly mended tear and slight loss, depicts the hand in diagrammatic form, mapping the mysterious correspondences between flesh, planets, and fate. For Renaissance readers, such images were as much instruments of knowledge as they were talismans of forbidden insight.
Survival of the book is scarce, perhaps due to ecclesiastical disfavor or simply the fragility of its production. This copy, though browned throughout (as typical, owing to the poor paper), preserves the full text, with the final index supplied in facsimile. Bound in 18th-century Italian paper boards, its worn but sturdy spine is a reminder of how such illicit volumes were passed hand to hand, their knowledge both treasured and suspect.
Antonius Picciolus (Antonio Piccioli). Antonii Piccioli seu Rapiti Renovati Cenetensis Iurisconsulti, Ad illustrissimum Lotharium de Comitibus, De Manus Inspectione Libri Tres. Bergomi [Bergamo]: Expensis Joannis Batistae Ciotti Senensis. Small 8vo. †4, A–N8, O4. Lacking O2–3 (index, supplied in facsimile); O4 blank. Folding plate with mended tear and slight loss. Uniform browning throughout. Bound in 18th-century Italian paper boards, spine worn but sound.
