Jérôme CARDAN (1501-1576) - Lot 286

Jérôme CARDAN (1501-1576) La métoposcopie de H.Cardan, médecin milanais, en treize livres et huit cent figures de la face. Paris, Thomas Jolly rue Saint-Jacques, 1658. Handwritten annotations on front cover. Bound in eight-ribbed blond leather (snags). 256 pages. Provenance from the library of Joseph Claude Anthelme Récamier (1774-1852), Paris medical doctor (creator of modern gynecology). - Ex-libris, number 10.A. 23.5 x 34 cm Note: The first edition of the treatise on metoposcopy was developed by Jérôme Cardan in 1558. Cardan was a renowned mathematician, physicist, philosopher and physician who ended his career with Pope Gregory XIII. His work has echoes in those of Rousseau, Goethe, Freud, Richelieu and Ferrari. Metoposcopy, a treatise on physiognomonic divination through forehead analysis, was very popular in Europe in the mid-18th century, as can be seen in Rabelais' Tiers Livre.