Filippo Finella - Methoposcopia Astronomica (Astronomical...

1650 FIRST EDITION ON METOPOSCOPY, ASTROLOGY, ESOTERISM, OCCULT, METAPHYSICS, VICES, VIRTUES, PHILOSOPHY by Filippo Finella (ca. 1548-1650), an astrologer, alchemist, chiromancer, and physiognomist. This banned book by Vatican is illustrated with around 420 engravings that depict and analyze various personality types, vices, and virtues. Metoposcopy was an ancient divinatory art that involved predicting a person’s character, personality, and destiny by analyzing the wrinkles and lines on their forehead. In this work, Finella combines it with astrology to achieve a more nuanced reading of personality. Finella claimed to have conducted research for 30 years, tracking the lives of approximately 1,500 individuals to gather evidence for his theories. Books of this kind were prohibited by Rule IX of the Tridentine Index (established in 1564), which strictly forbade all treatises on geomancy, hydromancy, chiromancy, physiognomy, and judicial astrology used to predict future events or human destiny. Although the book bears the imprint of the Plantin-Moretus press in Antwerp, it was actually printed in Naples—a precaution taken to avoid the Inquisition. There were compelling reasons for this: Finella and his publisher sought to escape imprisonment and the burning of their books. Furthermore, by using the prestigious Plantin-Moretus brand, they gained access to the largest market for such works—Northern Europe (England, the Netherlands, and Germany)—where there was a strong appetite for the occult, astrology, and divination. In the Netherlands, for instance—unconcerned by Vatican prohibitions—metoposcopy was even applied within the field of medicine. At the University of Leiden, for example, Protestant physicians integrated metoposcopy into medical semiotics—the scientific interpretation of physical signs used to diagnose internal pathologies—a practice championed by professors such as Franciscus Sylvius and Herman Boerhaave, who instructed their students to view the face and body as a clinical map of underlying physiological processes. Antique leather binding with gold decorations, in very good condition as shown in the photographs. RARE FIRST EDITION, NO COPIES FOR SALE. Because of the bans, copies of these books became highly prized, expensive luxury items. They were smuggled across borders into Protestant nations where papal bulls carried no legal weight, or hidden away in the private, locked libraries of elite occultists, physicians, and aristocrats. Metoposcopy was deeply rooted in Renaissance astrology and physiognomy. It operated on the macrocosm-microcosm belief that the human body mirrors the cosmos. Because the forehead is the part of the body closest to the heavens, it was considered a blank canvas directly influenced by celestial bodies. The book functions as an analytical atlas rather than a casual reading text. Finella catalogs how the texture of a line reveals a person's temperament (choleric, melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic) and their vulnerabilities to certain medical diseases. In astronomical metoposcopy Finella details how the seven classical planets project their cosmic rays into seven horizontal bands on the forehead, each ruled by one of the seven traditional astrological planets: 1. Saturn (highest zone, nearest the hairline). 2. Jupiter. 3. Mars. 4. The Sun. 5. Venus. 6. Mercury. 7. The Moon (lowest zone, just above the eyebrows). The length, depth, straightness, or intersections of wrinkles within these specific zones indicated how strongly a planet's traits or defects influenced the individual's personality, health, and future. This book is richly illustrated with approximately 420 expressive woodcuts. Each woodcut displays a highly individualized human face—some young, some old, with varying expressions—featuring starkly highlighted, deeply etched lines tracking from the bridge of the nose straight up to the hairline. Finella famously defended his work not as superstition, but as an empirical science. He claimed the book was the culmination of over 30 years of clinical tracking, mapping the lives, downfalls, and character traits of a massive dataset of over 1,500 real-world people. The theological backlash against metoposcopy and chiromancy was swift and severe, primarily because the church viewed the practice not as harmless character reading, but as a dangerous form of heretical determinism and demonic sorcery. The Church argued that because lines on the skin cannot naturally reveal accidental future events (like drowning, execution, or inheriting wealth), anyone claiming to read such futures must be receiving aid from a hidden, demonic source. TITLE: De Methoposcopia Astronomica (On Astronomical Metoposcopy) AUTHORS: Filippo Finella also known as Philippi Phinellae (ca. 1548-1650) PUBLISHER: Plantin-Moretus but in reality published by Giacomo Gaffari (Jacobus Gaffarus) DATE: 1650, Antwerp but in reality Napoli, text in Latin DESCRIPTION: In 8° size, height 165 x width 115 mm (6.5 by 4.5 inches). [8] prelimary unnumbered pages, and 216 pages, complete book. Antique leather binding with gilt ornamentation and titles on the spine; shows minor signs of use, small defects or other negligible imperfections. The binding is very solid and intact—free from cuts, breaks, cracks, or structural defects—fully functional, professionally restored, and in very good condition, as shown in the photos. Title page somewhat soiled, with various ownership inscriptions from previous owners. Some yellowing, along with signatures or dates, on the first 4 leaves. Paper somewhat yellowed in places, with small spots or areas of oxidation here and there, mostly within the white outer margins, richly illustrated with approximately 420 expressive woodcuts, text and illustrations intact, as shown in the photographs. SHIPPING: via UPS, DHL, National Postal Services, protected, INSURED and fully tracked package. Estimated time for Europe 3-5 working days. Shipping within one working day, you can combine shipping if you purchases several items from us, saving money and time.

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