Oct 24, 2019 - Sale 2521

Sale 2521 - Lot 37

Price Realized: $ 2,375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
[BULWER, JOHN.] Chirologia; or, The Naturall Language of the Hand . . . whereunto is added, Chironomia; or, The Art of Manuall Rhetoricke. 6 full-page engraved illustrations. [30], 187, [5]; [18], 146, [1] pages, including 2 engraved additional titles and final errata leaf. 2 parts in one volume. 8vo, 169x106 mm, old sheep, rebacked, endpapers renewed; occasional toning and minor marginal foxing, first additional title somewhat soiled, chipped along fore edge with minor repairs on verso, small ink stain at bottom of letterpress general title verso. London: Tho. Harper for Henry Twyford, 1644

Additional Details

first edition of an exhaustive study of gesture, drawing extensively on biblical and classical literature to describe and classify its uses in religious ritual, public oratory, stage performance, etc.; issue with Harper/Twyford imprint. While mentioning sign language among the deaf only tangentially in this work, Bulwer later wrote the first book in English to deal with the deaf (see lot 177) and pioneered the education of the deaf in England. Garrison-Morton 3346, 3347; Philip Mills Arnold Semeiology Collection 64; Wing B5462A, B5467.