The Forehead Metoposcopists
According to J Böhme, author of De Signatura rerum (1622), “There is no thing in nature created or born that does not reveal its inner form outwardly as well, for the internal always works towards revelation … Thus in the signature there lies great understanding, in which man not only comes to know himself, but he may also learn to recognize the essence of all beings.”
During the 17th century, the creases and wrinkles of the forehead were believed to be one such signature, reflective of the person’s inner self. Metoposcopy, the pseudoscientific study of said creases and wrinkles, was invented by Girolamo Cardano, a physician and astrologer also responsible for the first clinical diagnosis of typhus fever.
Cardano catalogued 800 distinct forehead configurations, each diagnostic of a different type of personality. Some are shown below:
(a) represents the brow of a peaceful man, (b) of a spiritual man, (c) of a man who will die a violent death, (d) of a successful soldier, (e) of a man threatened by an injury to the head, (f) of a poisoner. From H. Cardanus, Metoposcopia (1658) by way of Taschen’s beautiful book The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy and Mysticism.

According to legend, Cardanus starved himself to death at age 75 rather than run the risk of having his own horoscope falsified.
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