Essays on Physiognomy: Designed to Promote the Knowledge and the Love of Mankind. Illustrated by more than eight hundred engravings accurately copied; and some duplicates added from originals. Executed by, or under the supervision of, Thomas Holloway. Translated from the French

London: Printed for John Murray.., 1789. BLAKE, William. . Essays on Physiognomy. Designed to Promote the Knowledge and the Love of Mankind. Illustrated by more than eight hundred engravings accurately copied; and some duplicates added from originals. Executed by, or under the supervision of, Thomas Holloway. Translated from the French by Henry Hunter. London: Printed for John Murray..., 1789.

Full Description:

LAVATER, Johann Caspar. [Blake, William] Essays on Physiognomy. Designed to Promote the Knowledge and the Love of Mankind. Illustrated by more than eight hundred engravings accurately copied; and some duplicates added from originals. Executed by, or under the supervision of,

Thomas Holloway. Translated from the French by Henry Hunter. London: Printed for John Murray..., 1789-1798.

First edition in English. Three quarto volumes in five (13 1/4 x 10 5/8 inches; 337 x 270 mm). [12], [i] ii-iv [v-xxiv], [1-3] 4-281, [1, blank]; [i-v] vi-xii, [1-3] 4-238; [i-vi], [239] 240-444; [i-v] vi-xii, [1] 2-264; [i-vi], 265-437 [1, blank], [viii, index], [3, directions to binder], [1, blank] pp. Complete with 173 engraved plates by William Blake, Bartolozzi, Thomas Holloway and others, and over 500 engraved illustrations and vignettes in the text, including three engraved title vignettes. With half-titles in each volume. With three engraved vignettes signed "Blake S" and "Blake Sc" [Volume I, pages 127 (attributed but not signede), 206 and 225) as well as a full page plate engraved by Blake after Rubens (V.I opposite page 159). Collates complete with the list of plates in Volume V, which states plate 29 "was passed over in the numbering of the plates" which makes the total 173 rather than the 174 listed. With all tissue guards. A list of subscribers in Volume I.

Original full diced calf elaborately tooled in gilt and blind. Spines stamped and lettered in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Gilt dentelles. Board edges ruled in gilt. All edges gilt. Previous owner's armorial bookplate on front pastesdown of each volume. Boards with a bit of minor rubbing and some small repairs to headcap of volume IV. Outer hinges of volume V tender and with some cracking, but holding firm. Still a magnificent set, unusual without foxing.

Lavater (1741-1801) "was the last and most influential of the descriptive physiognomists, a class of pseudo-scientists who attempted to ascertain character on the basis of physical features...Von der Physiognomik [1772], an unillustrated two-volume book, was Lavater's first work on the subject; this was later expanded, with the help of Goethe, into the four-volume Physiognomische Fragmente (1775-1778), and further perfected in a French translation, Essais sur la physiognomie...supervised by Lavater himself. Lavater's physiognomy differed from those of his predecessors in that he paid special attention to the structure of the head, particularly the forehead—a form of psychological indexing that exerted some influence on the development of phrenology and brain localization theories in the early nineteenth century. Lavater's work also influenced artists of the period, both in the overall creation of portraits, and in the use of his physiognomical theories to construct individual faces in historical paintings" (Norman Library).

Lavater's work on physiognomy was extremely popular, and, by 1810, sixteen German, twenty English, fifteen French, two American, two Russian, one Dutch, and one Italian version had appeared. Among the portraits included are those of Descartes, Locke, Milton, Newton, Vesalius, Voltaire, and George Washington.

Garrison and Morton. Norman Library. Osler 3178. ESTC T139902.

HBS 68978.

$3,750.