De coniectandis cuiusque moribus et latitantibus animi affectibus [semeiotike] moralis, seu de signis

Book Description

Venice: Marco Ginammi, 1625. First edition. Quarto (23 cm); [20], 448 pages. Woodcut device on title page. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Shoulder notes. Bound in contemporary full vellum titled in manuscript on spine. Covers a little worn; old spatter stain along bottom edge of lower panel. Small rupture at crown near upper joint. Text generally clean and clear. Owner's purchase entry on title page dated 1635 by Gottfried Eichorn. Armorial bookplate of Czech collector Christoph Wenzel Graf von Nostitz (1742-1804). It is a mistake to classify De Coniectandis merely as a work on physiognomy. We could translate the title, "A Psychological Theory of Signs (semeiotike moralis) about the Interpretation of All Behaviors and Hidden Emotions of the Soul; or, On Signs..." It delves deeply and philosophically into core questions of semiotics and hermeneutics, that is, the relationship between signs and meaning. Thorndike characterized it as "a treatise on reading mind and character from external signs such as voice, movement of the body, care of the person, and from outward circumstances." Chiaramonte taught mathematics at Perugia and Philosophy at Pisa. Although he made the mistake of arguing astrophysics with Galileo and Tycho Brahe, this book on interpretation of signs remains a buried cornerstone in the foundation of modern Western thinking.

Not sure what some of these terms mean? Look it up in our glossary.