Sorry about the poor quality of this entry, but trust me, its better than what was here before ;-) --Anders Törlind
I suspect that there is more than one type of handball. For instance, there was a game played by French monks colled jeau de pomme (supposed to translate "game of the palm (of the hand)", my French is rusty) that was played in a similar fasion to racketball and is believed to be a predecessor of modern tennis.