DELLA ROCCA (Bartolomeo) - CORVE (André). - Lot 27

DELLA ROCCA (Bartolomeo) - CORVE (André). La Physionomie naturelle, et la chiromance de Barthelemy Cocles, de Boulogne, Docteur en Medecine. Où par les Traits & les Signes du Visage & par les Marques & Lineamens de la main, on peut connoître les mœurs, les complexions, le naturel, & l'intérieur de toutes Personnes. Rouen: Jean B. Besongne, 1700. - In-12, 150x93: 287 pp. Soft parchment, smooth spine (period binding). Caillet, 2413. New edition of this classic treatise on palmistry, the second published by Besongne in Rouen after that of 1698. The work actually contains three texts. The first, on pages 7 to 44, is the treatise on natural physiognomy by Bologna astrologer and palmist Bartolomeo Della Rocca, known as Cocles (1467-1504). It is illustrated with 29 woodcut faces in the text. This is followed by a treatise on palmistry, which occupies the greater part of the book, from pages 45 to 228. Presented on the title as the work of Della Rocca, it begins with a dedication to Jean François de Gonzague, Marquis of Mantua, and the Théorie de la chiromance by the Italian palmist André Corves (15..-15..). The entire treatise is actually by the latter. It includes 145 HAND REPRESENTATIONS ENGRAVED ON WOOD, including two full-page ones. According to Caillet: "This work of palmistry, which is preferred to the little Albert, is, says an old note, very rare and much sought-after by soothsayers or fortune-tellers. This work is indeed uncommon. The edition concludes with the Traité de l'inclination de l'homme et de la femme suivant leur nativité, occupying pages 229 to 287, written by the 16th-century Milanese astrologer Sinibal de Spadacine, better known under the title Le Miroir d'astrologie naturelle. A fine copy in contemporary binding. Some soiling to parchment. Some light spotting, not serious. Last two quires partly disbound.