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Books, Autographs & Prints / Part I

Tuesday 30 March 2021, 03:00 PM • Rome

143

Fisiognomica - Della Porta, Giovanni Battista

Of the physiognomy of man [...] six books. Translated from Latin into the vernacular, and increased by the same author with figures, 1622

Estimate

€ 200 - 300

Sold

€ 576

The price includes buyer's premium

Information

Padua, Pietro Paolo Tozzi, 1622-23. In 4th. 4 parts in one volume. & Nbsp; Four figured frontispieces engraved in copper, woodcut portraits of Cardinal d'Este and the author, numerous woodcut figures in the text, slight marginal halos, light blooms, 18th century binding in half parchment with corners.

Specialist Notes

Valuable Italian edition of Coelestis physiognomiae, translated into vernacular by Della Porta himself, which also contains Giovanni Ingegneri's natural physiognomy, Polemone's physiognomy, translated from Greek into Latin by Carlo Montecuccoli and Giovan Battista Della Porta's Della celeste physiognomy. "He now contends that what the astrologers state as the effects of the planets, signs and constellations are rather to be attributed to the qualities, humors and other peculiarities of the human body [...] But under this guise of reinterpretation he appears to be offering the reader a series of systematic abstracts from astrological authors, reading of whom might otherwise be taboo "- Thorndike VI, 163.