Mimique. L'Art de Connaitre les Hommes sur Leurs Attitudes, Leurs Gestes et Leurs Demarches; D'Apres Lavater; Avec Trente-Deux Planches Coloriees

Paris: Chez Saintin, 1813. Wraps. Very Good Minus. 12 mo. 5.5 by 4 inches, 14 by 10 cm. [4], 42 pp. 32 hand-colored plates. Scarce, with only three institutional holdings of it located on OCLC. While the work might have been intended as a guide to the "science" of physiogamy, its value to us is in the insights it offers about the unspoken language of expression and gesture and how it might have been intrepreted at the time. Thus we are shown that this particular appearance indicates a person incapable of introspection, this other, the confusion of an incorrigibly heartless, dishonest individual. We might reject the connection between the appearance and (truncated) the character type, but the belief at the time would certainly have informed actors at the time in how to convey the personality of the characters they were playing, and in everyday life average people had to have consciously sought to mold their behavior to present themselves flatteringly in accordance with the principles set forth in such a work. So this modest entertaining book enriches our understanding of manners and culture of the day beyond that provided in costume anthologies and other works. With the contemporary wraps. Corner creases. Minor soiling and wear. (Inventory #: 003193)