Antická a středověká chiromancie: její počátky a principy

• Authors: Vítek Tomáš

Title variants

EN

CHIROMANCY IN ANTIQUITY AND IN THE MIDDLE AGES: ITS BEGINNINGS AND PRINCIPLES

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

This article is devoted to the origins and the main stages of developement of Greek and Latine palmistry from Classical Antiquity until the early Renaissance. Chiromantic treatises have been preserved only in some medieval manuscripts (Greek as well as Latine), but the analysis of their terminology and basic principles of interpretation indicates that they were made according to ancient patterns. This is almost certainly true of Greek chiromantic treatise called Prognostikon, and it is also likely for a group of more sophisticated Latin writings which do not follow closely the older folk literature of the same type and which – in addition to possible Jewish and Arabic influences – probably integrate something of the ancient tradition. A passage in Aristotle, which proves the existence of chiromancy already in the 4th century BCE, also strongly influenced the form of later chiromantic literature (especially in the Middle Ages). Whether the ancient Greek palmistry was somehow marked by older civilizations, where the technique of divination is documented (China, India, Mesopotamia), could not be demonstrated.

Keywords

EN

chiromancy; religion of classical Antiquity; religion of Middle Ages; history of ideas

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Listy filologické (Folia philologica)
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 135
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 227-258

Contributors

author

Vítek Tomáš

• Filosofický ústav Akademie věd ČR, v. v. i., Jilská 352/1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic