PALMISTRY In the Library at Charlecote there is a collection of books that
was slowly accumulated from the Sixteenth century. Some of the earliest
books are somewhat inaccessible as they are small and tucked away
on the top shelves requiring a step or ladder to reach them. A day
was set aside for exploring these, leading to the discovery of some
interesting books presented in this talk. There are two sixteenth
century books on Palmistry or Chiromancy (from the Greek for hand
and divination). The Lucys were clearly very interested in this because
I found two later books and they wrote notes in them.
The earliest references to palmistry are in Indian Vedic writings
which have been carefully preserved and were thought to be revelations
passed down as an oral tradition by ancient sages. Veda is Sanskrit
for knowledge. They stretch back to over 1000 years before Christ.
The first writings only appeared during the first century BC. Palmistry
also existed in Chinese writings from 400BC. Palmistry was thought
to be so important that Indian statues of the gods had palm prints
but being of divine origin these had to be completely different from
those of ordinary mortals –see photo. It was only in the thirteenth
century that detailed Chiromantic manuscripts emerged, most of which
are now in the British Museum or Bodleian library, Oxford. However
these texts were rather short being just notes as reminders for the
oral delivery.
Barthelmy Cocles was also known as Andreas Corvus.
This is the earliest Palmistry book in the Charlecote library. In Chiromantis Magister by André Corve (1520 first published in Venice in 1510). Spelling of names seems to be approximate at best so Andre Corve can be Andreas Corvus but he is also known as Barthelmy Cocles . These books are incredibly rare and valuable. A translation of this title page is A little book by the most excellent and experienced man in chiromancy,
the most practised master Andreas Corvus of Mirandola, a book about
the surgical and medical art, for a long time most useful to those
able to profit from it. Complete with varied [types of] hands and
line drawings of them and everything that the ridges and creases demonstrate,
and full explanations of everything necessary to artistic studies. There are four pictures of palms at the end of the book.
So seriously that in 1850 somebody took the trouble to translate this book. Annoyingly they did not sign the translation. I will hazard a guess that it was Mary Elizabeth because George would have been dead for five years and she might well be concerned with what lay in the future.
The other Sixteenth century book is from slightly later, 1538 although the colophon indicates it was actually first published in 1494.
The translation of this title page reads Notice this book is illustrated and heavily annotated in Latin but
the combination of the handwriting and the language render it illegible
to me. Our final book on Palmistry was published by Ina Oxenford in 1899.
Ada Christina has inscribed the fly-leaf with ‘The proper study
of mankind is man’ which is a quote from a Poem by Alexander
Pope “An Essay of Man” which is in his collected works in
the Charlecote Library. It is dated 1900 so I presume it is a presentation
copy to her husband of 8 years, Sir Henry Cameron Ramsey Fairfax
Lady Ada Christina shown here with her son William who died in 1910
aged 15 painted by George Harcourt in 1896. Ada was Sir Edmund Fairfax
Lucy’s Grandmother. Sir Henry Cameron Ramsey Fairfax Lucy was
a baronet and brought the title ‘Sir’ back into the Lucy
family. He is shown in the uniform of the Royal company of Archers
and they were charged with maintaining the safety of the Sovereign
when she was in Scotland.
The quality of the hand prints in this Life Studies in Palmistry
show a marked improvement over the sixteenth century images. Looking at just one aspect of the hand of the Mathematician they
noted two breaks at A1 and A2 , the latter of which appears to be
a new development and leads to increase in money. That is made as
a bold but unsupported statement however he is then said not to care
for money as shown by the flat third phalanges. In my copy of this
book the previous owner has underlined this and placed a question
mark. Indeed they might. The phalanges are the bones in the fingers
and are normally marked Distal (tip), middle and proximal. I assume
the number Ina uses places 1 as the distal or end bone so the flattening
she observes is in the proximal regions of the fingers. I don’t
really want to stand here rubbishing her work but these are totally
unsupported statements.
The hand of a Judge. Of course I have not seen the years of work which have presumably led to these pronouncements but I would have been more convinced if it were some sort of blind test and they did not know it was a Judge’s hand they were looking at. I could have derived the above description of a judge without even looking at his hands. As a scientist I am totally sceptical of the whole “art”
of Palmistry and I think we better move on to something else. That
said I once went to a palmist in a booth just for the ‘Hell of
it’ and emerged rather shaken by the accuracy of some of the
comments made and some of the future prediction certainly did come
true.
Len Mullenger is a Sunday volunteer guide. Any comments are welcome and can be sent to len@musicweb-international.com Return to Index page |
They
clearly studied this book, underlining parts and annotating in the
margins. The annotations appear to be in latin but I could not decipher
them clearly enough to translate them. But it does make the point
that they took the study of palmistry very seriously.
The
London Cheirological Society of Great Britain had been established
in 1889 by Katherine St Hill who was then joined by Ina Oxenford and
the publisher Charles Rideal. [Rid-Eel]. Its aim was to apply scientific
research to Palmistry. The Society established Courses and Examinations
and functioned as a professional body. By 1892 it had sufficient members
to warrant the publication of its own Journal, The Palmist.
It was very popular being sold by W H Smith and other booksellers
and on railway station news-stands. Ina Oxenford acted as treasurer
and secretary and contributed articles. She wrote four books but they
all tended to be regurgitation of earlier authors.
