Make- up Cosmetics Anthropometamorphosis: man transform'd; or, The artificial changeling.

Very Early work of Anthropology in the English language and one of the first works to even mention the transformation of Apes to Humans.

"Artificial deformations of the body practised by various people from head to toe"

BULWER, JOHN. Anthropometamorphosis: man transform'd; or, The artificial changeling. Historically presented, in the mad and cruel gallantry, foolish bravery, ridiculous beauty, filthy finenesse, and loathsome lovelinesse of most nations, fashioning & altering their bodies from the mould intended by nature. With a vindication of the regular beauty and honesty of nature. And an appendix of the pedigree of the English gallant... London: J. Hardesty, 1650. First edition. [24], 24, 45-263, [45] pp., including 2 pp. of ads. Interestingly the ads are for both works published and a list of still unpublished manuscripts. ESTC R24242; Not in the trade!

Binding: Modern morocco in period style, all edges sprinkled red. Small 8vo., 145 x 85 cm, portrait in facsimile, followed by engraved title (present). Although the author's portrait is present in facsimile, this is otherwise an attractive copy of the rare first edition,

Bulwer surveys cultures and populations across the globe to create a catalog of adornment by tattoo and body modification. An entire section is devoted ti "privy parts" including sex-change. Interestingly, it is also one of the first books to mention the connections between humans and apes. Bulwer states "I have heard to fall, somewhat in earnest, from the mouth of a Philosopher (one in points of common beliefe (indeed) too scepticall) that man was a meer Artificiall creature, and was at first but a kind of Ape or Baboon, who through his industry (by degrees) in time had improved his Figure & his Reason up to the perfection of man." Here Bulwer was criticizing the Ape-Human Transformations mentioned presumably by Thomas Hobbes. The work is rare in the first edition, and is more commonly encountered in the impressively illustrated 1653 re-issue.

As a aside, the interesting note to the Engraver of the Author's portrait on A5 clearly plays hommage to Ben Johnson's famous poem in the First Folio of Shakespeare.