Della Fisionomia dell'Huomo .... Libri Sei Tradotti dal Latino, e dallo stesso Authore accresciuti di Figure ... Aggiontaui la Fisionomia naturale di Giouanni Ingegnieri, Polemone, e la celeste dello stesso Porta ; In questa quinta, et vltima Impressione ... aggiontocui il Discorso di Livio Agrippa sopra la natura, e complessione humana, Et il Discorso de' Nei di Lodovico Settali.
Venetia: Presso Christoforo Tomasino, 1644. Tenth Printing. Hardcover. Small folio. (xii) + 570 pp. (+ ivpp.) Contemporary pig-skin (?) over limp paper boards, bound without as spine, so that the bands to which the gatherings are sewn, and the gatherings themselves, are visible. Title page vignette, and two portraits; numerous decorative head and tail-pieces and capitals. Approx 180 woodcut illustrations in-text. Five parts in one volume. This work was written in Latin and first published in 1586 under the title "De humana physiognomia." It saw 19 editions before 1701, and has been translated into Italian (1598; translation by Salvatore Scarano), German (1651), French (1655), and English (1817). This tenth Italian edition is complete with a large number of intriguing (and humorous) woodcuts. Giambattista della Porta - also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta - (1535? – 1615) was an Italian scholar, polymath and natural philosopher, who lived in Naples during the height of the Italian Renaissance. He wrote widely, on topics as diverse as agriculture, alchemy, astrology, mathematics, meteorology, optics, and occult and natural philosophy, and is best known for his compendious "Magiae Naturalis" (1558). The present work "Della fisionomia dell'huomo" (On the Physiognomy of Humans) was written in Latin and first published in 1586 under the title "De humana physiognomia." It saw 19 editions before 1701, and has been translated into Italian (1598; translation by Salvatore Scarano), German (1651), French (1655), and English (1817). This tenth Italian edition is complete with a large number of intriguing (and humorous) woodcuts. In it della Porta and others summarise and expand upon previous works on physiognomy; the "science" of assessing a person's character or personality on the basis of his or her outer appearance, especially that of the face. The practice was widely accepted by the philosophers of ancient Greece, but had fallen into disrepute by the Renaissance. della Porta's work played an important part in reinvigorating it, and is said to have been a significant influence on the Swiss 18th century pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater, whose own work sparked something of a revival of the subject in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the 19th century criminologist Cesare Lombroso. It is interesting that della Porta also links it with astrology, with a chapter of the "fourth book" linking the two. The boards are quite rubbed, and front endpapers are split at the hinge, although the board is still firmly attached by the bands. The front pastedown and endpapers have some worm trails, and there is some minor worming to the last page or two, with the loss of one or two letters or numerals. A small number of pages are inexplicably somewhat darker than the rest, but overall generally the paper is fresh, clean and supple and the book is in VG+ antiquarian condition. Item #40084
Price: $1,250.00