French lawyer (1732 -1786). Manuscript and collection of 11 autograph letters. Paris. 4to manuscript, 4 pages with ink drawings of a human head and its phrenological brain areals. Letters: 4to, 2 pages, 8vo 1 ½ page, 8vo 1 page, 4to 3 pages, 4to 1 page, 4to ½ page, 4to 12 pages, 4to 2 pages, 4to 2 pages with chipped wax seal, 4to 2 pages w.
$ 1,759 / 1.500 €
(95849/BN63762)
Phrenology manuscript titled "Of Phrenology/Table of the faculties of intelligence, according to the doctrine of Doctor Gall" ("De la Phrénologie/Tableau des facultés de l'intelligence, d'après la doctrine du docteur Gall"). The manuscript shows three ink sketches of a human head, two smaller ones from the front and the back, and a larger sketch in profile, on all of which the 27 brain areals which Gall proclaimed to perform different cognitive functions are marked. The images are directly modelled after Gall's own drawings.
Each brain areal is described on the back of the page. For example, number 6, located on the upper edge of the back of the head, is according to phrenology responsible for "sentiments des grandeurs, instinct d'elevation, amour du pouvoir, de la domination, de l'autorité, du despotisme, amour de l'indépendance, sentiment du grandiose, de sublime, sentiment de sa propre dignité, estime de soi-même, fierté, orgueil, arrogance, dédain, présumption" ("Feelings of grandeur, instinct for elevation, love of power, domination, authority, despotism, love of independence, feeling of the grandiose, of the sublime, feeling of one's own dignity, self-esteem, pride, arrogance, disdain, presumption"). Number 24, right above the eyes, on the other hand, is the root of the "sentiment des personnes, mémoire des physionomies, amour des portraits" ("feeling for people, memory of physiognomies, love of portraits"). The manuscript closes with a short biography of Franz Joseph Gall. - Gall (1758-1828) was a German physiologist and the founder of the theory of phrenology, which assumes that the human head contained 27 different organs whose size and composition gave insights into the character of a person. While phrenology is widely regarded as pseudoscience, Gall was the first to formulate the theory of functional specialization, which now forms the basis of modern neuroscience. - With assorted letters by Jean-Baptiste-Jacques Élie de Beaumont and Jean Antoine Élie de la Poterie to each other and other family members on various topics, such as academic work, appointments, or contract notes about lent money or books. Élie de Beaumont was a French Protestant lawyer who was elected as a member of the Royal Society in 1765 for his role in the Calas affair, a dispute between Protestants and Catholics in France in 1762. His brother, Jean Antoine Élie de la Poterie (1735-1794), was a military doctor and scholar in la Manche and Paris..