Details
PORTA, Giovanni Battista della (1538-1615). De humana physiognomonia. Hanau: Peter Fischer, 1593.
8o (185 x 115 mm). Numerous woodcut illustrations in text. ()(5 and )(8 with marginal repairs, some light browning). 17th-century vellum, central oval gilt coat-of-arms, within gilt border and gilt stamped floral designs in corners. Provenance: Dr. Alfred Kopftach, Bonn 1852 (ownership inscription on preliminary blank).
Later edition. Physiognomy (literally "knowledge of nature") is the art of reading a person's character, disposition and even his future from signs in his face. An ancient art that was practiced by the Greeks, physiognomy has an obvious relationship to palmistry, and has also been linked traditionally to other forms of divination, such as astrology. Porta, in his treatise on human physiognomy, attempted to rationalize the art, establishing what he believed was a "scientific" basis for the correspondence between external form and internal character by analyzing the likeness of various human features to those of animals. In the eighteenth century Porta's work was revived and expanded upon by Lavater, who in turn provided inspiration to the nineteenth-century founders of phrenology. Adams P-1925; See Garrison-Morton 150.
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Later edition. Physiognomy (literally "knowledge of nature") is the art of reading a person's character, disposition and even his future from signs in his face. An ancient art that was practiced by the Greeks, physiognomy has an obvious relationship to palmistry, and has also been linked traditionally to other forms of divination, such as astrology. Porta, in his treatise on human physiognomy, attempted to rationalize the art, establishing what he believed was a "scientific" basis for the correspondence between external form and internal character by analyzing the likeness of various human features to those of animals. In the eighteenth century Porta's work was revived and expanded upon by Lavater, who in turn provided inspiration to the nineteenth-century founders of phrenology. Adams P-1925; See Garrison-Morton 150.