FOUR TEXTS BOUND IN ONE VOLUME: A VERY SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF KELLNER’S CHIROMANTISCHER WEGWEISER, bound with texts on CHIROMANCY, PHYSIOGNOMY AND ANTHROPOMETRY (ONE DESIGNED FOR ARTISTS) [J. D. Kellner], Gantz neuer und accurater chiromantischer Wegweiser, Oder Neuerfundene kurtze und leichte Anweisung, Wie man, mit Vermeydung aller Confusion und Contradiction, nach einigen gegebenen General-Reguln In kurtzer Zeit, Etwa binnen 14. abgewechselten Stunden, aus denen Händen eines Menschen von allerhand Beschaffenheiten und Zufällen desselben wahrscheinlich kan urtheilen lernen. Frag- u. Antworts-weise vorgestellet. 1707 [Completely new and accurate chiromantic guide, or newly invented short and easy instruction. How one can learn, avoiding all confusion and contradiction, according to some given general rules, in approximately within 14 hours… in Q & A format] Octavo: [16], 113, [1] pages, with engraved frontispiece and six engraved plates. The preface is initially J.D.K. FIRST EDITION. No US copies on Worldcat, not in NLM. This important book was reissued in 2011. An excellent copy in beautiful contemporary vellum. One page has a small piece missing in the margin but otherwise a fine copt, with plates of various kinds, Fascinating! This text by Kellner is very scarce, and the only manual of its kind that I know, in question and answer format. It is focused on the lines of the hand and with much detail, and some elaborate plates (A to F), it describes how character, health and the future can be determined from a close inspection of the palm. The work by Kellner is accompanied by a work in three parts (as issued): Niccola Spadoni, Ronphile, and Johann Sigismund Elsholtz, Höchstfütreflichtes Chiromantisch und Physiognomisches Klee-Blat, bestehend aus drey herrlichen Tractaten und zwar erstlich des Kunst-beruhmsten Ronphyle Hand-Wahrsagung; zum andern Nicolas Spadons Schauplatz der Curiositaten; und dann drittens D. D. Johann Sigmund Eltzholtzens Anthropometrie oder Mess-Kunst des Mess-Kunst des Menschlichen Corpers Welchen wegen Gleichheit der Materie Dominici de Rubeis Physiognomische Tafeln, Cardani Metoscopie und Melamps von den Mahlern des menschlichen Corpers miteingeruckt. Alles aus dem Frantzösischen, Lateinischen und Griechischen... 1695. [Highly Beneficial Chiromantic and Physiognomic Clover Leaf, Three Magnificent Treatises And Firstly Of Art's Most Famous Ronphyle Hand Divination; On the other hand, Nicolas Spadon's scene of curiosities; And then thirdly, D. D. Johann Sigmund Eltzholtzen's Anthropometry or Measuring Art of the Human Body, with… Dominici de Rubei's Physiognomic Tables, Cardani Metoscopy and Melamps] First thus (the first two texts are translations). Three texts in one octavo: [30], 112; 208; 550 pages. VD17 3:606185S. Krivatsy/NLM 5755. Each text with separate title page. As originally issued in one volume. Three US copies listed on Worldcat, but the book is also in the NLM. The first work has a lovely emblematic frontispiece of scholar using books of chiromancy, physiognomy, and metoposcopy by J. L. Honnig of Nurnberg; title page in red and black; six full-page chiromantic hands in Ronphile; six full-page (most with two images) in Spadoni; eight full-page plates in Elscholtz. Elscholtz published Anthropometria, an early study of anthropometry, in 1654 (Padua); the book was written for the benefit of artists and astrologers, as well as for students of medicine and physiognomy. It examines the perceived relationship between proportions of the human body and the incidence of disease. A second edition appeared in Frankfurt in 1663. Elscholtz considered the analogy of the human body with the universe, and what its proper proportions were, and the symmetry of its different parts. But he not only touched upon physiognomy but also on astrological chiromancy and gave figures of planetary lines in the hand and on the sole of the foot. His book is the first work to use the theory of proportions in medical-astrological human science. The book summarises the contemporary literature on proportions on (and in) the human body, in terms of weight, mass and dimensions, and evaluates observations; it also contains the earliest known illustration of a device for measuring body height (the ‘anthropometron’). Spadoni’s Stvdio di cvriosita nel quale si tratta di fisonomia, chiromantia, metoposcopia first appeared in Venice in 1667. Thorndike writes: ‘it treated Physiognomy, Chiromancy, Metoposcopy...It is held that one should prognosticate from the time of conception rather than that of birth, and that celestial causes concur in the fabric of man's complexion or temperament...Sleep and dreams...are also treated...the interpretation of moles and warts, is discussed.’ Of Ronphile, who may be the poet Rampalle who signs the dedication, we know nothing, but he is the translator of the first text. Caillet : ‘C'est un des meilleurs traités de chiromancie qui existent, orné de nombreuses figures finement gravées’ (one of the best works of chiromancy with many finely engraved figures’.