The Face of Humanity
De humana physiognomonia Ioannis Baptistae Portae Neapolitani, libri IV. : qui ab extimis, quae in hominum corporibus conspiciuntur signis, ita eorum naturas, mores & consilia (egregiis ad viuum expressis iconibus) demonstrant, vt intimos animi recessus penetrare videantur : omnibus omnium ordinum studiosis lectu vtiles, maximeque iucundi / nunc ab innumeris mendis, quibus passim Neapolitana scatebat editio, emendati, primumq; in Germania in lucem editi ; cum duplici rerum & verborum indice longe locupletissimo.
Ursellis [i.e., Oberursel]: Typis Cornelii Sutorii, sumptibus Ion[a]e Rosae, 1601.
Price: $1,500.00
About the item
Third (?) edition, preceded by the editions of 1586 and 1593. Title printed in red and black with woodcut portrait of Porta on the verso, and numerous fine woodcuts in the text. [16], 584, [55] pp. 8vo. The Face of Humanity. Bound in 20th-century brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine, edges gilt. Attractive, clean copy in a sturdy, if undistinguished, binding. OCLC: 21918465 (8 copies); Diamond 23.5; Norman Catalogue 1723 (1586 edition); this edition not in Wellcome.
Item #234615
"Porta was one of the pioneers of the scientific outlook, not himself a discoverer but a popularizer ... We are prone to think today of physiognomy as antiscientific, but it was in fact a way of emphasizing the dependence of behavior on body, a sort of physiological psychology." - Diamond 23.5.
Porta's PHYSIOGNOMONIA is also often a very amusing work, and its charming illustrations which explore the analogies between the various human types and their animal counterparts, can deliver many a bracing gasp of recognition, and more than a chuckle or two.
