The Council of Trent(1545–1563) marked a turning point in Church censorship, placing many scientific and esoteric texts—including palmistry—under scrutiny.

Andreas Corvus — The Surgeon-Chiromancer of Renaissance Venice (c. late 1400s–early 1500s)

Key Work:Chiromantiae Compendium (Venice, 1513)

Core Contributions:

• One of the earliest printed palmistry texts, Chiromantia, blending Galenic medicine with hand analysis

• Focused on palmistry for medical and surgical applications

• Dedicated to Gianfrancesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua

• Introduced mount correspondences (e.g., a flat Mount of Venus = unemotional temperament)

Documented Claims:

Life Line: "Si linea vitae est profunda et continua, significat corporis fortitudinem."
Source: 1513 Latin ed., Wellcome Library MS. 893, f. 4v

Medical Focus:
Linked hand features to humoral imbalances, not timed events.

Notes:
Corvus’ system was diagnostic, not predictive—a distinction later palmists blurred. This likely helped his work avoid censorship.

Johannes ab Indagine — The Monk’s Forbidden Science (c. 1467–1537)

Key Work:Introductiones Apotelesmaticae (Strasbourg, 1522)

Core Contributions:

• A monk, later called the most respected German palmist of the 1500s

• Employed by Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg

• First to merge palmistry, astrology, and physiognomy in a single printed work

• Planetary assignments: mapped planets to fingers (e.g., Saturn = middle finger)

Documented Claims:

Life Line: "So die Linie des Lebens lang unzerbrochen ist / bedeutet sie langes Leben."
Source: 1523 German ed., Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Rar. 2885, f. 23r

Church Condemnation:
Branded as diabolical divination in the 1559 Index of Forbidden Books of the Inquisition. His work was kept in private libraries by elites and preserved by astrologers.
Source: Vatican Library, Stamp. Barb. JJJ. 12, p. 89

Notes:
Like other writers of the time, Indagine did not yet map time onto hand lines.

Jean Taisnier — The Court Palmist and Astrologer (1508–1562)

Key Work:Opus Mathematicum (Cologne, 1562)

Core Contributions:

• Six of eight sections devoted to palmistry and divination

• Written for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his court

• Combined palmistry with astrology, physiognomy, and mathematics

Censorship:
Purged by the Spanish Inquisition in 1583; preserved in Habsburg intellectual circles
Source: British Library, Index of Prohibited Books, 1583 ed.

Documented Claims:

Fate Line: "Linea Saturni, si stella Martis earn transierit, pericula bellorum significat."
Source: 1562 ed., British Library 719.k.10, p. 112

Notes:
Taisnier’s method relied on astrological charts—his palmistry was not meant to stand alone.

Rudolf Goclenius the Younger — The Professor’s Method (1572–1621)

Key Works:

• Aphorisma Chiromantica (1592)

• Uranoscopia, Chiroscopia et Metoposcopia (1603)

Core Contributions:

• Linked hand analysis to Galenic medical theories

• Professor at Marburg University; blended medicine and astrology

Documented Claims:

Heart Line: "Linea cordis interrupta melancholiam indicat."
Source: 1603 ed., ETH Zurich Rar 4567, p. 89

Censorship:
Faced heresy investigations at Marburg, but was shielded by Lutheran patrons
Source: University of Marburg Archives, Theol. MSS 412

Notes:
Son of Rudolf Goclenius the Elder, who coined the term psychology.

Conclusion: During the Crackdown

These four writers helped shape palmistry into more than just fortune-telling:

• Corvus made it a medical tool.

• Taisnier turned it into a courtly art.

• Indagine and Goclenius treated it as a secret science.
  

They wrote during a time when publishing work like this could lead to prison—or worse. In parts of Europe, the cost of palmistry wasn’t just rejection but could lead to execution.