Bulwer, John

Chirologia: Or The Naturall Language Of The Hand. Composed of the Speaking Motions, and Discoursing Gestures thereof. Whereunto is added Chironomia: Or, the Art of Manuall Rhetoricke. Consisting of the Naturall Expressions, digested by Art in the Hand, as

      Printed by Tho(mas) Harper, and are to be sold by Henry Twyford, London:: Printed by Tho(mas) Harper, and are to be sold by Henry Twyford, , 1644.. First Edition, Twyford imprint variation.. Contemp. paneled sheep, rebacked, rubbed, edges worn, fore-edge of first engraved t.p. chipped (no txt affected), old ownerOs name OThomas Harris...Reading 1813O on veso of engr. t.p., letterpress t.p. backed with full-page engraved bookplate of OReuben MelmothO by Nicholls; occ. light dampstains, foxing and light browning; 2 plates trimmed at margin (slight loss of border). . 8vo. 2 pts. in 1 vol.. 2 Engraved titles by William Marshall, additional printed titles, 6 engraved plates of sign language, with final errata. Bulwer, John (bap. 1606, d. 1656), medical practitioner and writer on deafness and on gesture.Bulwer published four volumes exploring the theme of the human body as a medium of communication: Chirologia and Chironomia (as one volume, 1644, reprinted 1648), Philocophus (1648), Pathomyotomia (1649), and Anthropometamorphosis...#11;Chirologia comprehensively catalogues the meanings of hand gestures (illustrated by plates of OchirogramsO). Bulwer argued, in a colourful and rumbustious style which characterized all his work, that gestural language was universal and primary, with spoken language being but a gloss on gestural communication. This related to the widespread contemporary interest in the notion of universal languages, as well as curiously adumbrating later theories proposing that language evolved from gesture. Chironomia similarly surveys the OArt of Manuall RhetorickeO, mentioning in passing a new rhetorical gesture of Bulwer's own invention. ... Now accepted as a founding text of the English rhetoric tradition, its influence on subsequent seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works is nevertheless often covert (notably in Obadiah Walker's Art of Oratory, 1659)...#11;Bulwer took Francis Bacon's plea for a Oscience of manO, as well as his inductive method, more literally than any other seventeenth-century savant, often referring to him by such epithets as Othe Verulamian oracleO. Indeed, his works more nearly approach modern psychology in character than those of his illustrious philosophical contemporaries. Despite his robust literary style, only at the end of the twentieth century did his long neglect as a serious thinker begin to be rectified.O [Oxford DNB.]#11; Wing B5462 & B5466.ESTC r14061.Garrison & Morton 3347 & 3346. Stevenson & Guthrie, History of Oto-laryngology,74.Philip Mills Arnold Semeiology 64.y