Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1039.5

JOHANN CASPAR LAVATER (1741-1801) Essai sur la physiognomonie : destiné à faire connoître l’homme & à le faire aimer. [J. vän Karnebeek] 1781[-1786] 4 v. : ill. 36 cm.

[Other Authors: Chodowiecki, Daniel (1726-1801); La Fite, Jean Daniel de (1719-1781); La Fite, Madame de (Marie-Élisabeth) (1737-1794); Renfner, Henri (1753-1819); Caillard, Antoine Bernard (1737-1807)] Lavater was born in Zürich, and educated at the Gymnasium there; he was a poet as well as a physiognomist. His name would be forgotten but for his work in the field of physiognomy, Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe (1775–1778). The fame of this book, which found admirers in France and England as well as Germany, rests largely upon the handsome style of publication and the accompanying illustrations. The two principal sources from which Lavater developed his physiognomical studies were the writings of the Italian polymath Giambattista della Porta, and the observations made by Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici (translated into German in 1748 and praised by Lavater). This pseudo-scientific analysis of the human face, and all the feelings it is capable of expression, was partially written by Goethe, a leading expert in craniology. To defend the science of physiognomy, Lavater drew largely upon the work of such authorities as Haller, Herber, Leibnitz and Sulzer. Although this work remains controversial, it is today highly valued for its superb engraved illustrations by Henry Fuseli, Chodowiecki, Thomas Holloway, Bartolozzi, and William Blake. There are numerous portraits of famous writers, artists, musicians, scientists, and famous contemporary personages including Goethe, Samuel Johnson, Locke, George Washington, Voltaire, Heidegger, Wren, Diderot, Isaac Newton, Rousseau, Winckelmann, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Cited references: Garrison & Morton 154

John Martin M.D. Endowment