During the last two decades a large amount of effort and attention has been paid to the problem of designing and controlling dextrous robotics hands. The possible application background ranges from telerobotics to upper limb prosthetics, while actual industrial developments are mainly limited to specific grippers and tools. Classical problems related to dextrous hand design are kinematics of multifingered hands, development of proper actuation technologies and redundant tendinous systems for transmission. As far as hand control is concerned, grasp preshaping, planning and synthesis are of major concern, while sensor guided hand operation is still a matter of research. The present work reviews the above mentioned hand design and control issues trying to throw some light on the Babel-like confusion encountered when looking at present literature on dextrous hand design and specially control. Most actuation and transmission technologies, as well as control approaches, are studied and classified.