ANTHROPOMETAMORPHOSIS: MAN TRANSFORM'D : OR, THE ARTIFICIALL CHANGLING HISTORICALLY PRESENTED IN THE MAD AND CRUELL GALLANTRY, FOOLISH BRAVERY, RIDICULOUS BEAUTY, FILTHY FINENESSE, AND LOATHSOME LOVELINESS OF MOST NATIONS, FASHIONING AND ALTERING THEIR BODIES FROM THE MOLD INTENDED BY NATURE; WITH FIGURES OF THOSE TRANSFIGURATIONS. TO WHICH ARTIFICIALL AND AFFECTED DEFORMATIONS ARE ADDED, ALL THE NATIVE AND NATIONALL MONSTROSITIES THAT HAVE APPEARED TO DISFIGURE THE HUMANE FABRICK. WITH A VINDICATION OF THE REGULAR BEAUTY AND HONESTY OF NATURE. AND AN APPENDIX OF THE PEDIGREE OF THE ENGLISH GALLANT

Book Description

London: William Hunt, 1653. Second Edition. calf. Very Good copy of a most interesting title. Quarto (5-1/2" x 7-1/4") bound in early calf with a recent calf spine; [50 (of 52)], 559, [31] pages. Lacks the frontispiece, as in the Wing copy (B5461), leaf A1 (The Intent of the Frontispiece), and the portrait. The Table leaf is bound with the extra leaf containing three engravings between S2 and S3. Illustrated with 174 engravings in the text. Pforzheimer 115: "The subject and abundant illustrations ... make it a desideratum in any collection of curiosa, for it describes and illustrates every conceivable alteration of the human body by man's design or by nature and is of equal interest to the anthropologist and the student of human credulity"; Welcome I, 270. Considered to be THE EARLIEST BOOK ON THE ART OF THE TATTOO AND OTHER FORMS OF BODY MUTILATION. It is a combination of fiction and fact, ancient and modern, brought back to England by early world travelers. The First Edition of 1650 was smaller (a duodecimo) and not illustrated.

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