In the 1200s, there was a special place for learning in Sicily, Italy. It was the court of Emperor Frederick II. People there studied science, stars, and even magic. One of the most important people at this court was Michael Scot. He was a smart man from Scotland who knew a lot about languages, science, and astrology. Michael Scot helped bring old and new ideas together, and his work made a big difference in how people in Europe learned about the world.

Michael Scot was very talented. He could speak and read Latin, Greek, and Arabic. He translated important books by famous thinkers like Aristotle and Averroes. These translations helped people in Europe learn more about science and philosophy.

At Frederick II’s court, Michael Scot worked as an adviser and astrologer. He answered questions about the stars, the soul, and nature. Emperor Frederick II loved learning and often tested Michael Scot’s ideas. Instead of having only soldiers around him, the emperor liked to have smart people and scholars at his court.

While working for the emperor, Michael Scot wrote a book called The Book of Physiognomy (commissioned by Frederick ll, likely). In this book, he said that the human body, including the hands, shows signs from the stars and planets.
He wrote, “The hand is a mirror of the heavens.”
This means he believed that the lines and shapes on our hands are connected to the planets and the universe.

Even though Michael Scot did not write a book just about palm reading, his ideas helped people take palmistry more seriously. Before him, some people thought palm reading was just a superstition. But Michael Scot made it part of the search for knowledge.

About sixty years after Michael Scot died, the first illustrated palmistry guide appeared in England. Today, it is called MS Ashmole 399. It was named after Elias Ashmole, a man who collected many old books. This book is now kept at Oxford University.

The Ashmole Manuscript was written around the year 1292. It has drawings of hands and explains what the different lines mean. A red or dark line, for instance, meant too much "blood," a hot condition. A pale line meant not enough blood. Lines caused just by external heat or cold didn’t count.

The book mixes ideas from medicine, astrology, and palmistry. It shows how people in the Middle Ages tried to understand health and fate by looking at the hands.

Michael Scot’s book gave people the idea that hands can show us things about the universe. The Ashmole Manuscript put these ideas into practice. It showed people how to actually read hands, with pictures and simple explanations. This was an important step in making palmistry a real subject to study.

Michael Scot never wrote a palmistry manual, but his ideas helped make it popular and respected. The Ashmole Manuscript is proof that palmistry became an important subject in the Middle Ages. Together, Michael Scot and the Ashmole Manuscript show how palm reading went from an idea to a real practice, mixing science, medicine, and astrology.

Their story reminds us that reading palms was not just a superstition. It was part of a bigger way of thinking, where people tried to find connections between the body, the stars, and our future.

(And if you ever want to see Michael Scot’s original book, rare book sellers sometimes have copies. One was recently for sale in London for £8,500!)