La Chirognomonie, ou l'art de reconnaitre les tendances de l'intelligence d'apres les formes de la main

Casimir Stanislas d'Arpentigny's book is the founding primary text of chirognomy, the reading of hand shape as distinct from palm line reading, and this record describes it plainly as what it is: one nineteenth century French writer's own invented systematic method, not independent scholarship verifying that hand shape reveals character or intelligence. Its documented significance is as the origin point later chirognomic and palmistry writers credit for establishing hand shape reading as a distinct systematic practice, checkable against the text itself. Use it to document the content and origin of d'Arpentigny's own system as the founding statement of modern chirognomy; it is not evidence that hand shape reading actually reveals character, and it is not a source on the separate and older tradition of palm line reading, which this text does not itself cover.