Metoposcopy

 ( Divination ) 

Metoposcopy is a form of divination in which the diviner predicts personality, character, and destiny, based on the pattern of lines on the subject's forehead. It was in use in the Classical era, and was widespread in the Middle Ages, reaching its zenith in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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History

Pliny mentions a metoposcopos, described by Appion the Grammarian, who ("a thing incredible to be spoken") could judge a person's age and how much longer they would live. According to Suetonius, another practitioner determined that Titus, and not Britannicus, would become Roman emperor. Juvenal was disdainful, and considered metoposcopy to be plebeian.

Metoposcopy is prominently featured in the Zohar.Matt, Daniel, "Zohar, Vol.4" Isaac Luria (1534 - 1572), a Ottoman Syria rabbi considered to be the founder of contemporary Kabbalah, practised a form of metoposcopy in which he interpreted the appearance of Hebrew letters on the forehead.

Yosef Eisen (2025). 9781568713236, Targum/Feldheim. . ISBN 9781568713236

Lawrence Fine (1995). 9780814726235, NYU Press. . ISBN 9780814726235

Metoposcopy was developed by the 16th century Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano, considered to be one of the foremost mathematicians of the Renaissance. His seminal work Metoposcopia libris tredecim, et octingentis faciei humanae eiconibus complexa, illustrated with engravings of 800 foreheads, was written in 1558 and published posthumously in 1658.

Melissa Percival (1999). 9781902653075, MHRA. . ISBN 9781902653075

Giovanni Antonio Magini was also interested in the subject. Ciro Spontoni published an illustrated text on the practice. La metoposcopia overo Commensuratione delle linee della fronte...nuova fisonomia, un tratatto dei nei, & un altro dell'indole della persona, con molte curiosita. (1672, Andrea Rossi, Verona). Many metoposcopy books were published in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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Criticism

Jean Bodin denounced metoposcopy in his influential work De la démonomanie des sorciers (1580). The practise was banned by Pope Sixtus V in 1586.

Armando Maggi (2001). 9780226501321, University of Chicago Press. . ISBN 9780226501321

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See also

• Frontispiece (book)
• Physiognomy

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External links

• The Skeptics Dictionary
• The English Dictionary
• The Mystica.org

Categories: Divination

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