JOURNAL OF THE WARBURG AND COURTAULD INSTITUTES Warburg Institute,University of London, Woburn Square,London WClH 0AB
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NOTES
A RING ON THE LITTLE FINGER: ANDREAS CAPELLANUS AND MEDIEVAL CHIROMANCY * Stefano Rapisarda In a well-known passage from the treatise On Love (De amore, ii.7.21), written some time between the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, the still mysterious author known as Andreas Capellanus, or André, le chapelain, considers on which hand and which finger a ring presented by one’s lover should be worn:1
his partner as a love-token, he should place it on the little finger of his left hand and always keep the stone of the ring hidden on the inside of the hand. The reason for this is that the left hand normally refrains from all dishonourable and base acts of touch: a man’s life and death are said to reside in the little finger more than in others: and all lovers are bound to keep their love hidden.2
I should like individual knights of love to be informed that if a lover has accepted a ring from
In his view, therefore, the ring should be worn on the left hand and placed on the
* This article was researched and written under the Censimento, Archivio e Studio di Volgarizzamenti Italiani (CASVI), financed by the Ministero dell’Istruzione, Università e Ricerca, as one of the Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale (PRIN), 2005, in which are involved the Universities of Lecce (director R. Coluccia), Catania (M. Spampinato), Basilicata (R. Librandi), Turin (A. Vitale Brovarone) and Siena–University for Foreigners (C. Ciociola). 1. De amore was written between 1174, the date of a letter cited within the text, and 1238, when it was quoted in the treatise De amore by Albertano da Brescia. The identity of Andreas Capellanus is, however, by no means clear. See J. F. Benton, ‘The Court of Champagne as a Literary Center’, Speculum, xxxvi, 1961, pp. 551–91: ‘The identification of Andreas Capellanus, author of the celebrated treatise De Amore, as the chaplain of Countess Marie is so commonly repeated that it is easy to forget the uncertain nature of the evidence and doubts of a number of critics. The present discussion is … intended … to show that the question is still open’ (p. 578). According to L. A. Vigneras, ‘Chrétien de Troyes Rediscovered’, Modern Philology, xxxii, 1935, pp. 341–42, a certain Andreas, chaplain of a French king, signed seven documents between 1182 and 1186; but an Andreas Cambellanus (chamberlain), can be found in Parisian records of 1190–91; see P. Dronke, ‘Andreas Capellanus, Journal of Medieval Latin, iv, 1994, pp. 51–63 (52), citing A. Karnein, De amore in volkssprachlicher Literatur, Heidelberg 1985, p. 36.The traditional view was to place Andreas Capellanus at the court of Champagne, to consider
De amore as a summa of courtly love (see also n. 3 below) and to date it no later than the end of the 12th century. According to the most recent scholarship, however, the treatise should probably be dated to around the 1230s (see Dronke, p. 56); and Andreas should be shifted from Champagne to the city of Paris, either in the court (Karnein) or in the university (Dronke). Finally, Dronke himself suggests that Andreas Capellanus is nothing but the witty pseudonym of a cleric imitating ‘Andrea of Paris’, a literary character who died for love in a lost vernacular romance (ibid., pp. 53–55). 2. Andreas Capellanus, De amore libri tres, ed. E. Trojel, Copenhagen 1892; repr. Munich 1964, p. 294: ‘Hoc tamen singulos volumus amoris milites edoceri, quod, si amans a coamante anulum amoris causa susceperit, ipsum in sinistra manu et in minuto debet digito collocare et anuli gemmam ab interiori manus parte semper portare absconsa; et hoc ideo, quia sinistra manus a cunctis magis consuevit tactibus inhonestis et turpibus abstinere, et in minuto digito prae cunctis digitis mors fertur hominis et vita manere et quia singuli tenentur amantes suum amorem retinere secretum.’ Translation (with slight modifications) from Andreas Capellanus ‘On Love’, ed. and transl. P. G. Walsh, London 1982, pp. 269– 71. See also the translation in The Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus, ed. and transl. J. J. Parry, New York 1941, pp. 176–77. On the use and custom of rings in general see A. Ward, J. Cherry, C. Gere and B. Cartlidge, The Ring from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century, London 1981.
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little finger (minutus digitus). Moreover, the stone should be turned inwards so that it is not visible, for secrecy is one of the key features of what we refer to, since Gaston Paris coined the term, as ‘courtly love’.3 The custom of lovers and sweethearts wearing a ring on their little finger is confirmed by various Old French literary sources:4 Chrétien de Troyes, Contes du Graal (c. 1181): Gauvain, requested by Grinomalant to bring a ring to the girl he loves, ‘placed the ring on his little finger and said: “Sir, on my faith, trust me that you have a wise and kind lover” …’5
Jean Renart, L’Escoufle (1200–02): ‘The lady put her hand under her white blouse because she was swearing an oath …; on her little finger he touched the ring which was there.’7
Nevertheless, when Andreas Capellanus recommends that a ring betokening love should be placed on the little finger, he contradicts a very old tradition prescribing that rings were to be worn on the fourth finger, which therefore became known as the ‘ring finger’. As Isidore of Seville writes:
Roman de Tristan en prose (c. 1240): ‘On the little finger of his left hand, he wore a gold ring, which was very expensive and very beautiful, with a precious stone. And you should know that in those times no one wore a gold ring unless they possessed great power and authority.’6
They are called fingers (digiti) because there are ten (decem) of them or because they are elegantly joined together (decenter iuncti), for they have in themselves both the perfect number and a very beautiful proportion.The first finger is called the thumb (pollex) because it predominates over (polleat) the others in virtue and power. The second is called the index (index) and greeting
3. See J. B. Moore, ‘“Courtly Love”: A Problem of Terminology’, Journal of the History of Ideas, xc, 1979, pp. 621–32, which deals for the most part with the problem of interpreting De amore: is it a serious work or are the author’s intentions ironic? The question remains a matter of discussion, and Dronke (as in n. 1), p. 56, believes that the style of argument belongs more to a scholastic than to a courtly milieu. 4. In wedding ceremonies—the love described by Andreas Capellanus would usually be adulterous, of course—the situation is more confused because there are different local traditions. See, e.g., the account of a late medieval Spanish wedding in J.-B. Molin and P. Mutembe, Le rituel du mariage en France du XII e au XVI e siècle, Paris 1974, p. 159, where the groom places a ring on the index finger of the woman’s right hand, while the bride places one on the little finger of his right hand: ‘Deinde tradet viro ad puellam annulo suo in dextera manu in digit[o] iuxta pollice[m]. Similiter et mulier tradet illi in extremum dextri.’ In a Parisian pontifical of the first half of the 13th century, the ring is first placed on the thumb, while saying ‘In the name of the Father’ (In nomine Patris), then on the little finger, saying ‘In the name of the Son’ (In nomine Filii) and finally on the middle finger, where it remains, saying ‘And of the Holy Spirit’ (Et Spiritus Sancti). In some ceremonies the ring remains on the middle finger of the right hand; in others, on the ring-finger of the same hand. It was only with the introduction of the Roman rite of 1592 that wearing a wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left
hand became the rule, probably because wearing a ring on the right hand was a bishop’s prerogative. The preference for the fourth finger, according to Molin and Mutembe (p. 168), was developed ‘sous l’influence d’un texte de saint Isidore de Séville, souvent cité par les rituels’. See Isidore of Seville, De ecclesiasticis officiis, ii.20: ‘quod inprimis anulus ab sponso sponsae datur, fit hoc nimirum vel propter mutuae fidei signum vel propter id magis, ut eodem pignore eorum corda iungantur. Unde et quarto digito anulus idem inseritur quod eo vena quaedam, ut fertur, sanguinis ad cor usque perveniat.’ Molin and Mutembe (ad loc.) identify Isidore’s source as Macrobius (quoted n. 9 below). 5. Les Romans de Chrétien de Troyes edité d’après la copie de Guiot (Bibl. nat., fr. 794), v, Le Conte du Graal (Perceval), ed. F. Lecoy, 2 vols, Paris 1972–75, i, p. 82 (ll. 8800–03): ‘Lors a mes sire Gauvains mis / l’anel au son plus petit doit / et dit: “Sire, foi que vos doi, / amie avez cortoiose et sage”…’ 6. Le Roman de Tristan en prose, ed. R. L. Curtis, 3 vols, Cambridge 1985, i, p. 55: ‘Et il avoit ou petit doit de la main senestre un anel d’or mout riche et mout bon a une pierre precieuse. Et sachiez que a celi tens ne portoit nus hons anel d’or, s’il n’estoit de grant pooir ou d’autorité.’ 7. Jean Renart, L’Escoufle. Nouvelle èdition d’après le ms. 6565 de la Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, ed. F. Sweetser, Geneva 1974, p. 144 (ll. 4470–75): ‘La bele a mis por la suour / Sa main sous sa blanche chemise; / … o son petit doit / Senti l’anel qui estoit ens.’
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RING ON THE LITTLE FINGER (salutaris) or pointing (demonstratorius) finger because we generally use it for greeting and for pointing things out. The third is called the naughty finger (impudicus) because it is often used to express an offence against decency. The fourth is called the ring finger (anularis) because we wear a ring (anulus) on it; it is also called medicinal (medicinalis) because doctors use it for collecting medicinal powders. The fifth is called the ear finger (auricularis) because we use it to clean our ears (aures).8
But what is the rationale for wearing rings on the fourth finger? The basis for this longstanding practice is an anatomical and physiological fact, as Macrobius points out in a passage from his Saturnalia, where one of the characters says:
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their fourth finger starting from the thumb, since there is a vein here which links it to the heart—something which the ancients thought worth noting and honouring.’10 The tradition of wearing rings on the fourth finger was handed down from antiquity to the present day. Yet even in the late Latin world there were minor exceptions to this rule. Pliny, for instance, speaks of a contemporary fashion for wearing rings on the little finger:
Isidore as well, in his chapter ‘On Rings’, writes: ‘Men have begun to wear a ring on
It had originally been the custom to wear rings on a single finger only, the one next to the little finger; that is how we see them on the statues of Numa and Servius Tullius. Afterwards people put them on the finger next to the thumb, even in the case of statues of the gods; and more recently, it pleased them to give the little finger a ring as well.The Gallic Provinces and the British Islands are said to have used the middle finger. Nowadays this is the only finger exempted, while all the others bear the burden, and even each finger-joint has another smaller ring of its own. Some people put all their rings on their little finger only, while others wear only one ring even on that finger and use it to seal up their signet ring, which is kept stored away as a rarity, not deserving the insult of common use, and is brought out from its cabinet as from a sanctuary. And so even wearing a single ring on the little finger may advertise the possession of a costlier piece of apparatus put away in store.11
8. Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri viginti, ed. W. M. Lindsay, 2 vols, Oxford 1911; at xi.i.70–71: ‘Digiti nuncupati, vel quia decem sunt, vel quia decenter iuncti existunt. Nam habent in se et numerum perfectum et ordinem decentissimum. Primus pollex vocatus, eo quod inter ceteros polleat virtute et potestate. Secundus index et salutaris seu demonstratorius, quia eo fere salutamus vel ostendimus. Tertius impudicus, quod plerumque per eum probri insectatio exprimitur. Quartus anularis, eo quod in ipso anulus geritur. Idem et medicinalis, quod eo trita collyria a medicis colliguntur. Quintus auricularis, pro eo quod eo aurem scalpimus.’ 9. Macrobius, Saturnalia, vii.13.8: ‘De hac ipsa quaestione sermo quidam ad nos ab Aegypto venerat, de quo dubitabam fabulamne an verum rationem vocarem; sed libris anatomicorum postea consultis, verum repperi, nervum quemdam de corde natum priorsum pergere usque ad digitum manus sinistrae minimo proximum … ; et ideo visum veteribus, ut
ille digitus anulo tamquam corona circumdaretur.’ Translation (with modifications) from Macrobius, The Saturnalia, transl. P. V. Davies, New York and London 1969, p. 498. Molin and Mutembe (as in n. 4), p. 168 n. 22, identify Macrobius’s source as Aulus Gellius (quoted n. 13 below). 10. Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae (as in n. 8), at xix.32.2: ‘Anulos homines primum gestare coeperunt quarto a pollice digito, quod eo vena quedam ad cor usque pertingat, quod notandam ornandamque aliquo insigni veteres putaverunt.’ For Macrobius as Isidore’s source see n. 4 above. 11. Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis, xxxiii.6.24– 25: ‘Singulis primo digitis geri mos fuerat, qui sunt minimis proximi. Sic in Numae et Servi Tullii statuis videmus. Postea pollici proximo induere, etiam in deorum simulacris, dein iuvit et minimo dare. Galliae Britanniaeque medio dicuntur usae. Hic nunc solus excipitur, ceteri omnes onerantur, atque privatim articuli minoribus aliis. Sunt qui uni tantum minimo
A discussion of that very point [i.e., which hand and which finger a ring should be worn] had come to us from Egypt, and I was in doubt for a while whether to call it just an idle tale or a true explanation. But later, after consulting some books on anatomy, I discovered the truth: that there is a certain nerve which has its origin in the heart and runs from there to the finger next to the little finger of the left hand … ; and that this is the reason why it seemed good to the men of old to encircle that finger with a ring, as though to honour it with a crown.9
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Macrobius, again in the Saturnalia, has another of his characters say that he remembers having read in the works of a jurist that in the past rings were not regarded as decorations but rather were used as indications of personal identity and as expressions of will: only free men had the right to wear a ring, and they wore only one. There was no rule as to its position: it could be worn on either hand and on any of the fingers. But then the age of luxury arrived, and people began to incorporate precious gems into their rings. At that point, to avoid the risk of damaging these valuable rings, they started to wear them on their left hand, since it was less used in everyday matters. The thumb was excluded because even on the left hand it is frequently employed, so there would be a high risk of damage to the ring. Nor was the second finger acceptable, since it was naked and unprotected (nudus et sine tuitione). The third finger was ruled out, on account of its large size (magnitudo), as was the little finger, due to its smallness (brevitas).12 This left only the fourth finger as the natural place to wear a ring.
congerant, alii vero et huic tantum unum, qui signantem signent. Conditus ille, ut res rara et iniuria usus indigna, velut e sacrario promitur, ut et unum in minimo digito habuisse pretiosioris in recondito supellectilis ostentatio sit. Iam alii pondera eorum ostentant. Aliis plures quam unum gestare labor est, alii bratteas infercire leviore materia propter casum tutius gemmarum sollicitudini putant, alii sub gemmis venena cludunt, sicut Demosthenes summus Graeciae orator, anulos que mortis gratia habent.’ Translation (with modifications) from Pliny the Elder, Natural History, transl. H. Rackham, 10 vols, London and Cambridge MA 1938–63, ix, p. 21. 12. Macrobius, Saturnalia, vii.13.11–16. 13. The reason why John mentions a very fine nerve instead of a vein is that, in contrast to the rest of the tradition, which relies on Isidore of Seville, he is quoting almost verbatim from Aulus Gellius, Noctes atticae, x.10.1–2: ‘Veteres Graecos anulum habuisse in digito accepimus sinistrae manus qui minimo est proximus. Romanos quoque homines aiunt sic plerumque anulis usitatos. Causam esse huius rei Apion in libris Aegyptiacis hanc dicit, quod insectis apertisque humanis corporibus, ut mos in Aegypto
This custom continued during the Middle Ages, as a passage from the Policraticus of John of Salisbury (c. 1115–80) shows: It is well known that the ancient Greeks wore a ring on the finger of the left hand which is next to the little one. They say that the Romans, too, commonly wore their rings in the same manner. King Apion in his Egyptian books says that the reason for this practice is that when you cut and open human bodies, a custom which the Greeks call anatomas, you find a very fine nerve connecting that finger to a person’s heart.13 So it seemed that it was right to honour in this way such an important finger, which is joined and even appears to be united to the most important organ, that is, the heart.14
There was therefore a consistent tradition, going back to the Greeks and Romans, of wearing rings on the fourth finger. We can observe the persistence of this custom in various genres of texts from the Middle Ages: 1) Law books. Decretum Gratiani (twelfth century), on wedding ceremonies: Item: that a ring is given by the groom to the bride at the beginning of the ceremony happens
fuit, quas Graeci ἀνατοµάς appellant, repertum est nervum quendam tenuissimum ab eo uno digito de quo diximus, ad cor hominis pergere ac pervenire; propterea non inscitum visum esse eum potissimum digitum tali honore decorandum, qui continens et quasi conexus esse cum principatu cordis videretur.’ For the Egyptian books of King Apion see F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, iii C, Leiden 1958, p. 126 (616: ‘Apion von Oasis und Alexandeia’, F 7). 14. John of Salisbury, Policraticus, ed. C. C. I. Webb, 2 vols, Oxford 1909, ii, p. 30 (vi.12): ‘Veteres quoque Graecos annulum habuisse in sinistrae manus digito qui minimo proximus est celeberrime traditur. Romanos quoque homines aiunt sic plerumque usitatos annulis, causamque hujus rei Apion in libris Aegyptiacis dicit, quod insectis apertisque corporibus, ut mos fuit, quas Graeci anatomas vocant, compertum est quemdam tenuissimum nervum ab eo uno digito, de quo diximus, ad cor hominis pertingere, ac pervenire: visumque esse eum potissimum digitum tali honore decorandum, qui continens, et quasi connexus cum principatu cordis videretur.’
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RING ON THE LITTLE FINGER without doubt as a sign of mutual trust or rather as a pledge of love by which their hearts are joined. For this reason, the ring has to be placed on the fourth finger because in it there is a certain vein which, it is said, carries blood to the heart.15
2) Sermons. Martin of Laon (d. 1203), in his Sermo IV In natale Domini, repeats the passage from Gratian’s Decretum virtually word for word.16 3) Episcopal investiture protocols. Epistola XXIX of Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims (c. 806–82): Rules for the ceremony in which the metropolitan and the diocesan bishop are to be consecrated. When the consecrator reaches the places in which there are signs of the cross, let him take the vase with the anointing unction in his left hand, and with his right thumb, as he sings of what is contained within, let him in each place make the sign of the cross with the anointing unction on the head of the person to be consecrated; and then the consecration is complete. And when everyone says ‘Amen’, let the Gospels be lifted by the bishops from his shoulders, and let him place the ring on his right hand on the finger which comes before the little one, explaining why the ring is given to him.17
15. Concordia discordantium canonum, canon VII.3 §3 in Patrologia Latina [hereafter PL], ed. J.-P. Migne, Paris 1850, clxxxvii, col. 1450A: ‘Item, quod in primis negotiis annulus a sponso sponsae datur, fit hoc nimirum vel propter mutuae fidei signum, vel propter id magis, ut eodem pignore eorum corda jungantur. Unde et quarto digito annulus idem inseritur, quod id est quod in eo vena quaedam, ut fertur, sanguinis ad cor usque perveniat.’ Cf. Gratian, Decretum, C. XXX, q. 5 c. 7, who refers to Isidore, De officiis, ii.16 (cited by Molin and Mutembe, as in n. 4, p. 168 n. 22). 16. Martin of Laon, Sermo IV In natale Domini, in PL, ccviii, col. 506B: ‘Illud autem quod in primis annulus a sponso sponsae datur, fit hoc nimirum vel propter mutuae fidei signum, sive propter id magis, ut eodem pignore eorum corda in amore jungantur: unde et quarto digito annulus ille inseritur, quod de eo vena quaedam, ut fertur, sanguinis ad cor usque perveniat.’ 17. Hincmar of Reims, Epistola XXIX, in PL, cxxvi, col. 188. ‘Quo debeant ordine consecrari metropolitanus atque dioecesanus episcopus. Ut
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4) Homiletic works. Honorius of Autun (fl. 1106–35), Gemma animae: Concerning the ring. It is believed that the Gospels accepted the use of rings, since the guest at the dinner in which the fatted calf is served is dressed in the best robe and given a ring (Luke 15[22–23]). In former times kings used to sign letters with a ring; this was also the custom for nobles and for those who took wives. It is said that a certain wise Prometheus was the first to wear a ring made of iron as a sign of love and that in it he put a diamond stone, signifying that just as iron dominates everything, so love conquers all, and that just as a diamond is unbreakable, so love is unconquerable. He decided that the ring should be worn on the finger in which there is a vein that runs up to the heart, and for this reason it acquired the name of ring finger (annularis).18
It is clear that the practice of wearing a ring from one’s lover on the little finger, as described by Andreas Capellanus, goes against the widespread tradition reflected in these texts. Except for Pliny, who mentions a recent fad for loading all the fingers with rings, it was customary to wear any type of ring, whether a love token or a religious symbol, on the ring finger, not
autem ventum fuerit ad loca in quibus sunt cruces signatae, accipiat consecrator vas chrismatis in sinistra manu, et cum dextro pollice, cantans quae ibidem continentur, per singula loca faciat crucem de chrismate in verticem consecrandi, et perfecta consecratione, et respondentibus omnibus Amen, tollantur ab episcopis Evangelia de collo ejus, et mittat annulum in dexterae manus digito qui praecedit minimum, dicens ad quid illi annulus datur.’ 18. Honorius of Autun, Gemma animae, in PL, clxxii, col. 609C–D (i.216): ‘De annulo. Annuli usus ex Evangelio acceptus creditur, ubi saginati vituli conviva prima stola vestitur, annulo insignitur (Luc. XV). Olim solebant reges litteras cum annulo signare; cum hoc soliti erant et nobiles quique sponsas subarrhare. Fertur quod Prometheus quidam sapiens primus annulum ferreum ob insigne amoris fecerit, et in eo adamantem lapidem posuerit; quia videlicet sicut ferrum domat omnia, ita amor vincit omnia; et sicut adamas est infrangibilis, ita amor est insuperabilis. Quem enim in illo digito portari constituit, in quo venam ut cordis deprehendit, unde et annularis nomen accepit.’
subarrhare - OK?
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on the little one. Why, then, does Andreas Capellanus opt for the little finger? And why does he say that life and death reside in this finger? The various modern editors and translators of De amore have not answered these questions either.19 Instead, they have simply annotated the text with a reference to the Policraticus, in which, as we have seen, John of Salisbury speaks of the fourth finger, not the little one.20 Nor can any answer be found within the anatomical tradition, which similarly refers to the fourth finger as privileged because it is joined to the heart by a vein or nerve. Guy de Chauliac (c. 1300–68), for example, makes no mention of any special status of the little finger in his Inventarium sive Chirurgia magna,21 nor does Arnold of Villanova (d. 1311) in the section of his Doctrina Galieni de interioribus where he discusses the anatomy of the little finger.22 We might expect some of the thirteenth-century translators of Andreas Capellanus’s treatise to explain, by means of annotations or glosses, why life and death reside in the little finger. This never happens, however. Neither of the medieval Italian translators, for instance, provides an explanation. Why? Either they did not
recognise it as a deviation from the normal convention or, more probably, they did not understand the passage themselves. One of them records the interesting variant ‘life and love’ (‘la vita e l’amore’) instead of ‘life and death’: the ring ‘ought to be worn on the little finger because the life and love of man lies here more than in any other finger’.23 Is this a departure from the Latin tradition, or is it an attempt to rectify by means of conjectural emendation what he regarded as a corrupt reading in the Latin because it was incomprehensible to him? We cannot say. The other Italian version is substantially the same, except that this translator adds one detail: the ‘life and death of man and woman (‘de l’uomo e della femmina’) reside more in the little finger than the others.24 The Florentine Antonio Pucci (d. 1388) includes a simplified version of the passage from De amore in his Libro di varie storie; but he, too, makes no comment, stating merely that:
19. In addition to the editions and translations by Trojel, Walsh and Parry (n. 2 above), see: Des königlich fränkischen Kaplans Andreas 3 Bücher Ueber die Liebe, introd. and transl. H. M. Elster, Dresden 1924, pp. 323–34; Traité de l’amour courtois, ed. and transl. C. Buridant, Paris 1974, pp. 175 and 248 n. 140 (he notes, however, that the John of Salisbury passage is not a sufficient explanation); and De amore, transl. J. Insana, Milan 1992, p. 150. 20. See n. 14 above. 21. Guy de Chauliac, Inventarium sive Chirurgia magna, ed. M. R. McVaugh, New York and Cologne 1997, pp. 40–43 (‘Capitulum quatrum de anathomia homoplatis et brachiorum seu manuum magnarum’). 22. Arnold of Villanova, Doctrina Galieni de interioribus, ed. R. J. Durling, in his Opera medica omnia, XV, Barcelona 1985, p. 318. 23. Andreas Capellanus, Trattato d’amore/De amore libri tres, ed. S. Battaglia, Rome 1947, p. 337: ‘Ma questo vogliamo che sappiano gli amanti: che se l’uno
amante dall’altro, anello per amore prenda, nel minimo dito della sinistra mano le de’ portare, e la gemma portare dallato dentro della mano e sempre nascosa. E questo de’ fare perché la sinistra mano da tutti i liciti toccamenti si suole più astenere, e nel minimo dito si dee portare, che più che li altri sta la vita e l’amore dell’uomo: e ancora, perché tutti li amanti sono tenuti di tenere loro amore segreto.’ 24. Ibid., p. 339 [in the apparatus]: ‘quello anello de’ portare nella mano manca e nel dito mignolo, e la gemma dell’anello da lato della palma della mano: e per ciò adiviene perché la mano manca si guarda da toccare più che la diritta ogni brutta cosa; e nel dito mignolo è la vita e la morte de l’uomo e della femmina più che negli altri’. 25. Antonio Pucci, Libro di varie storie (1362), ed. A. Varvaro, in Atti della Accademia di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Palermo, Parte 2, Lettere, s. IV, vol. xvi, parte II, fasc. II, 1957, pp. 3–312 (279): ‘e se l’uno amante riceve dall’altro anella, per amore debbonlo portare
if one lover receives a ring from the other, he or she should wear it, out of love, on the little finger of the left hand and the stone should be held in the inside part of the hand, and it must be hidden.25
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Nor, finally, do we find any explanation in the versified French version of Drouart La Vache (c. 1290):
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Summing up what we have established so far, there seem to have been two traditions in the Middle Ages which co-existed: the majority view, dating back to classical antiquity and based on anatomical and physiological fact; and a minority position, which was recent and mainly French and which, for reasons that remain obscure, maintained that life and death resided in the little finger. Where, then, did this latter belief come from?
The most likely explanation, in my opinion, is that the passage reflects the influence of chiromancy, which at the time attracted wide attention and was broadly diffused among the upper classes, the clergy, at court and at university.27 Under the name of palmistry, it survives today, practised by fortune-tellers and regarded by some as a game and by others as superstition, quackery and esotericism. In the Middle Ages, by contrast, after the first Latin treatises got into circulation throughout Europe, chiromancy was considered a natural science, more closely related to medicine and physiognomy than to divination and prophecy. At least in its origins, it was a rational and philosophical discipline, which spread in the West following winding roads, under the banner of Aristotle’s authority, treading a narrow path between the licit and illicit, between the reading of natural signs and the prediction of future events.28 It helped princes to select their advisers, clergymen to know whether they would gain benefices and episcopates, men to determine whether
in dito mignolo della mano sinistra e dee portare la gemma volta in entro celatamente’. 26. Drouart la Vache, Li Livres d’Amours. Texte établi d’après le manuscrit unique de la Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, ed. R. Bossuat, Paris 1926, p. 185: ‘Tant weil je que vos aprenés, / Vous qui bonne amour maintenés, / Que, se li amans a ss’amie / Donne .i. anel, par cortoisie, / Ou petit doi touz jors doit estre / Li aniax, de la mani senestre, / Et doit la pierre estre mucie / Par dedenz la main, par maistrie: / Et raison i a telle et bonne: / Nature nous aprent et donne / Que mix se garde la senestre / D’ordure touchier que la destre, / Et ou petit doi, quoi c’on die, / Est la mors de l’omme ou la vie, / Plus qu’el n’est en nul autre doit, Et por ce que la fame doit / S’amour garder secreement.’ 27. In Western Europe the term chiromancy first occurs in the 12th century, almost simultaneously in Plantagenet England in the Policraticus of John of Salisbury, and in Christian Spain in De divisione philosophiae by Dominicus Gundissalinus or Gundisalvi (Domingo Gonçales), archdeacon of Toledo, to whom many translations and adaptations of Arabic texts are attributed: ed. L. Baur, Munster 1903, pp. 119–20, ‘cum enim multae sint sciencie iudicandi …
ut … ciromancia in manu’. For the oldest surviving text see C. Burnett, ‘The Earliest Chiromancy in the West’, this Journal, l, 1987, pp. 189–95: he describes a chiromancy in the so-called Eadwine Psalter (Cambridge, Trinity College MS R.17.1), which appears to be more or less contemporary with the Policraticus and the treatise of Gundissalinus. It is accompanied by an onomancy; the texts are transcribed consecutively, without beginning a new page, soon after some annotations to the Credo and Pater Noster. The presence of two divinatory texts in a devotional manuscript might seem at first sight rather odd; but the chiromancy was apparently designed for clergymen, containing a series of predictions aimed at an ecclesiastical user, such as the gaining of benefices and episcopal offices. Thomas Becket’s interest in divinatory practices is well known; see John of Salisbury, Policraticus (as in n. 14), i, p. 144 (ii.27); Manuali medievali di chiromanzia, ed. S. Rapisarda, transl. and comm. idem and R. M. Piccione, Rome 2005, pp. 9–12. Moreover, the same hand is responsible not only for copying the onomancy and the chiromancy but also for the annotations to the Credo. 28. See Manuali medievali di chiromanzia (as in n. 27), esp. pp. 18–20.
I want you to learn, you who maintain your love in good order, that if a lover gives a ring to his beloved, in courtship, the ring must always be on the little finger of the left hand, and the stone must be artfully hidden on the inside of the hand. There is a good reason for this and here it is: Nature teaches us and says that the left hand is better at keeping itself from touching uncleanliness than the right, and in the little finger, so it is said, is man’s death or life, more than in any other finger; and because a woman must keep her love a secret.26
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their brides were chaste or promiscuous, women to find out whether their men were brave or cowardly, and everyone to discover whether they would have sons or daughters, be rich or poor and have a long or a short life. In the rubrics on the hands illustrating several twelfth-century chiromancies,29 we read that if a cross is seen under the little finger in a man’s right hand (dextra viri), it is a sign of life and death: ‘This cross going out, removes life and brings its opposite [i.e., death]. The more it goes out, the sooner [life] departs.’30 And in relation to the woman’s left hand (sinistra mulieris), which is more or less a mirror image of the man’s right hand, we read: ‘This cross going out removes life and brings its opposite, that is, death.’31 In each case, the cross at the base of the little finger is shown on a drawing which accompanies the prediction (see Figs 1 and 2, no. 21 in both pictures). A cross located in the same place can be observed in similar works. For example, there is a ‘cross of life and death’ on the woman’s left hand (manus sinistra que est mulieris) in another illustrated chiro-
29. C. Burnett, ‘Chiromancy: Supplement: The Principal Latin Texts on Chiromancy Extant in the Middle Ages’, in his Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages, Aldershot and Brookfield, VT 1996, pp. 1–29 (18–29). 30. For text and (slightly modified) translation see ibid., pp. 24–25 (‘Dextra viri’, no. 21), ‘Hec crux exiens vita removet et eius contrarium inducit. Que quanto plus exierit, tanto magis mox excedit’ (London, British Library MS Sloane 2030, fol. 126r ). See also the variants in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 399, fol. 17r (‘Dextra viri’, no. 21), ‘Hec crux exiens vitam remordet’; and Cambridge, Trinity College MS 0.2.5., fol. 130r, ‘Que quanto plus extenditur, tanto magis mox accedit.’ 31. Ibid., p. 28 (‘Sinistra mulieris’, no. 21), ‘Hec crux exiens vitam removet et eius contrarium inducit, scilicet mortem’ (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 399, fol. 16v ); variant in Cambridge, Trinity College MS 0.2.5., fol. 129v, ‘Hec crux exiens vitam removet. Quanto hec crux extendit, tanto mors propinquior erit’; omitted in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 399, fol. 17r.
mancy, Palmistria Salomonis (Figs 3–4). The caption reads: ‘This cross removes life and brings its opposite’ (Fig. 3bis).32 The caption under the man’s right hand (manus dextera qui est masculi) reads: ‘When this cross is present, it removes life; and the further it extends, the more death advances’ (Fig. 4bis).33 The same statements appear in an Anglo-Norman version of this work, which depicts a Mayn de femme and a man’s right hand (Figs 5–6). On the former it says ‘Cete crois tout la vie e meyne la mort’ (Fig. 5bis), while on the latter, ‘Cete croiz signefie la vie et le plus ke ele ist vint el la mort’ (Fig. 6bis).34 More structured treatises, such as the Tractatus ciromancie of Roderick of Majorca, provide the same information: Concerning the middle line. … when it is well articulated, deep and clearly visible, and reaches up to the mount of the blade, it means a long life; and when it does not traverse the entire hand, it means a short life; and when it is cut by a line, producing a sort of cross towards the end, it means a near and imminent death, which will happen within a year.35
Similarly, in the Chiromantia of pseudoJohn of Seville, we read:
32. Cambridge, Trinity College MS 0.2.5, fol. 388v, ‘hec crux vitam removet et eius contrarium inducit’. 33. Ibid., fol. 389r, ‘hec crux existens vitam removet in quanto plus extendit tanto plus mors excedit’. 34. Cambridge, Trinity College MS 0.3.45, fols 59v–60r. For an edition of all the Anglo-Norman chiromancies see S. Rapisarda, Chiromanzie anglonormanne, forthcoming. 35. R. A. Pack and R. Hamilton, ‘Rodericus de Majoricis: Tractatus Ciromancie’, Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge, xxxviii, 1971, pp. 271–305 (287–88); and see now Manuali medievali di chiromanzia (as in n. 27), p. 214, ‘6. De linea mediana. …quando est bene articulata et profunda et bene apparens, protensa usque ad montem incisionis, longam significat vitam, et si <non> pertransit totam manum, brevem significat vitam. Et quando linea ipsam secat ad modum crucis versus finem, mortem proximam significat et imminentem, infra annum futuram.’
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1. Dextra viri, man’s right hand (after Burnett, ‘Chiromancy: supplement’, p. 18)
2. Sinistra mulieris, woman’s left hand (ibid., p. 19)
183
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3. Cambridge, Trinity College MS 0.2.5, folio 388v, Palmistria Salomonis
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4. Cambridge, Trinity College MS 0.2.5. folio 389r, Palmistria Salomonis
185
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5. Cambridge, Trinity College MS 0.3.45, folio 59v
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6. Cambridge, Trinity College MS 0.3.45, folio 60r
187
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3bis. Detail of Trinity College MS 0.2.5, folio 388v: the cross under the little finger
4bis. Detail of Trinity College MS 0.2.5, folio 389r (rotated 180째): the cross under the little finger
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5bis. Detail of Trinity College MS 0.3.45, folio 59v
6bis. Detail of Trinity College MS 0.3.45, folio 60r
189
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Now it is time to speak about the middle line. … When it is well articulated, clearly visible and deep, and reaches up to the hand’s mount of the blade, it means a long life; and when it does not traverse the entire hand, it means a short life; and when there is a line near the end of it producing a sort of cross, it foretells death within a year.36
Indications of the length of a person’s life and of his or her sudden transit from life to death are thus found at the mount of the blade, which is located directly below the mount of the little finger, which, for this reason, is more significant than the others. The same belief may also have influenced the semiotics of chiromancy. Some chiromancy books locate the signs of the number of weddings or the quality of a couple’s relationship or the nobility of one’s partner at the base of the little finger, in the folds at the joint of the palm. For example, in the Chiromantia parva, we read: From this line on the side of the hand between the table line and the little finger, however many lines appear, they signify as many marriages (apart from the first line); if they are oblique, past marriages; if straight, future ones.37
36. Ps.-John of Seville, Chiromantia, i: ‘4. De linea mediana sive sinistra trianguli nunc est dicendum. … et quando est bene articulata, bene apparens et profunda, protensa usque ad montem incisionis manus, significat longam vitam, et quando non transit per totam manum, significat brevem vitam, et quando una linea ipsam circa finem in modum crucis, mortem infra annum denunciat futuram’, in R. A. Pack, ‘A Pseudo-Aristotelian Chiromancy’, Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge, xxxvi, 1969, pp. 189–241 (210); see now Manuali medievali di chiromanzia (as in n. 27), p. 134. 37. For the text and translation (slightly modified), see Burnett (as in n. 29), pp. 14–15 (no. 31), ‘Iuxta eandem a latere manus inter lineam mensalem et auricularem quotcumque linee apparuerint, totidem designant nupcias, excepta prima linea. Si oblique fuerint, peractas; si recte, futuras.’ See also the rubrics below the little finger in ‘The Hands’: ibid., p. 20 (‘Dextra viri’, no. 1), ‘[Linee] nupciarum. Quot lineas tales post primam habuerit, tot uxoribus nubet; et si longiores, nobiliores’; and p. 24 (‘Sinistra
Much the same passage is found in pseudo-John of Seville, Chiromantia: Concerning the mount of the little finger …some say that …if the lines between the table line and the base of the little finger are oblique, they mean past marriages; if straight, future ones.38
And in Roderick of Majorca, Tractatus ciromancie: Concerning the mount of the little finger … if the lines between the table line and the base of the finger mentioned above [i.e., the little finger] are oblique, they mean happy marriages; but if they are cut, the prediction changes.39
In conclusion, we can say that the passage from Andreas Capellanus’s De amore seems to reflect the influence of chiromantic theory. The presence of this allusion to the ‘modern’ science of chiromancy is perhaps a further clue to the perceived Aristotelian naturalism, the ‘vanitates’ and ‘insaniae falsae’ which, in the eyes of Étienne Tempier, bishop of Paris, made the content of Andreas Capellanus’s De amore unacceptable and which, it has been claimed, contributed to the Parisian condemnations of 1277.40
mulieris’, no. 1), ‘Quot lineas tales post primam habuerit, tot viris desponsabitur. Et si maiores sint secunde quam prime, nobiliores erunt mariti quam ipsa sponsa.’ 38. Ps.-John of Seville, Chiromantia, i: ‘21. De monte auricularis …dicunt aliqui quod …linee inter mensalem et radicem auricularis transversantes nupcias preteritas significant, sed directe, futuras; sed tedia magis quam impedimenta talium nupciarum significant’, in Pack (as in n. 36), p. 223; see now Manuali medievali di chiromanzia (as in n. 27), p. 160. 39. Pack and Hamilton (as in n. 35), p. 297; and see now Manuali medievali di chiromanzia (as in n. 27), p. 236: ‘17. De monte auricularis …et si inter mensalem et radicem digiti predicti transversantes sint linee, nupcias cum summo gaudio significant; si autem scindantur, mutatur iudicium.’ 40. M. Grabmann, ‘Das Werk De Amore des Andreas Capellanus und das Verurteilungsdekret des Bischofs Stephan Tempier von Paris vom 7 März 1277’, Speculum, vii, 1932, pp. 75–79; A. J. Denomy, ‘The “De Amore” of Andreas Capellanus and the
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Condemnation of 1277’, Mediaeval Studies, viii, 1946, pp. 107–49. See ‘Epistola scripta a Stephano Episcopo Parisiensi anno 1277’, in La condemnation
parisienne de 1277, ed. and transl. D. Piché, Paris 1999, pp. 72–79 (72, 76).
JOURNALOF THE WARBURG AND COURTAULD INSTITUTES Warburg Institute,University of London, Woburn Square,London WCIH 0AB
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