De hvmana physiognomonia Ioannis Baptistae Portae Neapolitani libri IIII : qvi ab extimis, quae in hominum corporibus conspiciuntur signis, ita eorum naturas, mores & consilia (egregiis ad viuum expressis iconibvs) demonstrant, vt intimos animi recessus penetrare videantur ... : nunc ab innumeris mendis, quibus passim neapolitana scatebat editio, emendati, primumq[ue] in Germania in lucem editi : cum duplici rerum & verborum indice longe locupletissimo

Porta, Giambattista della, approximately 1535-1615 · 1593 · Hanoviae [i.e. Hanau] : Apud Guilielmum Antonium, impensis Petri Fischeri Fr. · 62 pictures

A 1593 Latin treatise on physiognomy by Giambattista della Porta of Naples, printed at Hanau in Germany for a scholarly readership interested in reading character from facial features. Its woodcut pictures pair human profiles with animal heads, such as a ram-like head beside a man's face, and set out side-by-side comparisons in plain black line. A designer might take from them the strong profile silhouette, the contrast between human and animal features, and the dense hatched shading of early woodcut.

Physiognomy

Internet Archive · Getty Research Institute · Public domain (published before 1931) · More from this library