Happy Frontispiece Friday! This image comes from John Bulwer’s Chirologia, a 17th century work
Happy Frontispiece Friday! This image comes from John Bulwer’s Chirologia, a 17th century work dedicated to the language of the hand. While Bulwer’s system of hand gestures influenced modern British sign language, he didn’t necessarily think of gestures as solely a means of communication among the deaf. Rather, he saw the use of manual languages as the closest thing to a “universal tongue” that could be understood by all people. This frontispiece uses symbolic imagery to represent the language of gestures. In the center, we see a hand with a face in its palm—somewhat strange, but indicative of the hand’s ability to speak. Water pours from the face’s mouth into the so-called “Cisterna Chirosophiae:” The Cistern of Chirosophy. It is flanked by two allegorical figures. The one on the left represents Nature, with her customary many breasts, and in this case she is explicitly identified as “Natura Loquens,” or the Natural Speech. The figure to the right is Polyhymnia, the Greek muse whose domain includes eloquence and pantomime. Below them are various hand gestures and their meanings, including eloquence, logic, and science. -- source link
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