Della Porta, De humana physiognomia, Vico Equense, 1586, contemporary limp vellum
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
DELLA PORTA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. De humana physiognomonia libri IIII. Vico Equense: Giuseppe Cacchi, 1586
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL WORKS ON PHYSIOGNOMY.
In this treatise, Porta attempted to establish a scientific basis for the ancient art of physiognomy by comparing various human features with those of animals. His work had a strong influence across painting, literature, theatre and more, and was taken up in the eighteenth century by the Swiss pastor and writer Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801). Cacchi was the first printer at Vico Equense, near Naples.
Folio, 328 x 222 mm. Italic and roman type, 46 lines plus headline. collation: 2*2 A-2L4: 138 leaves. Engraved frontispiece with portrait of the author, full-page engraved portrait of the dedicatee, Cardinal Luigi d'Este, 2 full-page engravings of a man and woman (both repeated), 81 engravings (including many repeats) of comparative heads of man and animal, with the cancel engraving pasted on Bb2 recto, marginal annotations in an unidentified hand. (Light browning and spotting throughout, quires T and V more browned, K2-3 becoming detached at foot.)
binding: Contemporary limp vellum (335 x 235 mm), flat spine, manuscript title on spine "Finosomia di porta", old markings, possibly pen trials, on upper cover, traces of 2 pairs of ties. (Binding somewhat soiled and wrinkled, endleaves soiled and becoming detached, repairs to upper endleaves, lacking ties.)
provenance: "Sig. Filippo Morandi in Piazza Navona", eighteenth-century art dealer, inscription on upper endleaf. acquisition: Purchased in 2018 from Libreria Antiquaria Mediolanum, Milan. references: USTC 826315; Edit 16 CNCE 16532; Durling 3720; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 398; Norman 1723
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