Geoffrey Ashall Glaister s.v. "digit 2.", Encyclopedia of the Book, 2nd Edition, 2001, p. 141.
"This type ornament has a long history, the printed outline of a hand being used as a paragraph mark by, among other early printers, Huss at Lyons in 1484 in the edition of Paulus Florentinus’s ‘Breviarum totius juris canonici’ he printed with Johannes Schabeler. As with other typographic conventions this was taken from scribal practice, carefully drawn hands pointing
to a new paragraph being found in early 12th century (Spanish) manuscripts. It is also known as a fist, hand, or index."
