Physiognomy in the context of "Scientific racism"

Prima [et Secunda] pars Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis. (transl. 'The First [and Second] Part of the Storehouse of Images of the More Notable Men from the Beginning of Time, with Their Biographies Subjoined, Taken in Abbreviated Form from the Most Approved Authors.') is a compilation of woodcut portraits published in 1553 by Guillaume Rouillé, a French bookseller-publisher active in the early modern book trade of Lyon. Originally issued in Latin, French, and Italian editions, the book presents the portraits in a medallion format, largely arranged in a supposed chronological order. The subjects range from figures of the Old Testament and Greco-Roman mythology to contemporary individuals of the mid-16th century. Many of the portraits are imaginative rather than historically grounded, shaped by Rouillé's interest in physiognomy—the study that sought to relate facial features to character and personality—and by the engraver's artistic license. Although the engraver is unnamed in the text, the 19th-century bibliographer Henri-Louis Baudrier attributed the work to Georges Reverdy [fr].

The book is divided into two sections: Prima pars ('First Part'), covering figures predating Christ, and Pars secunda ('Second Part'), documenting individuals from the Christian era onward. Typically bound as a single volume, these sections maintain separate pagination systems. The earliest editions contained 828 portraits each, with accompanying biographical summaries; the authorship of these biographies remains debated. The book's commercial success led to subsequent editions in multiple languages, which included a Spanish edition in 1561. The 1577 French edition expanded the collection with approximately 100 additional engravings and placed greater emphasis on Renaissance humanist scholars. The portraits mimic the style of ancient coinage but lack the numismatic precision required for scholarly reference. Rouillé simplified complex histories through standardized imagery and concise narratives so that the past would be more accessible to a general readership. His compilation influenced how individuals were depicted in European iconographic collections from the late 16th century into the 17th.

Melancholia or melancholy (Ancient Greek: μελαγχολία, romanized: melancholía; from μέλαινα χολή, mélaina cholḗ, 'black bile') is a concept found throughout ancient, medieval, and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly depressed mood, bodily complaints, and sometimes hallucinations and delusions. Besides a pathological condition, melancholy could also refer to a mood or temperament and at times it was even used as a description of the human condition in general.

Melancholy (or more precisely the 'black bile', from which melancholy derives its name) was regarded as one of the four temperaments matching the four humours. Until the 18th century, doctors and other scholars classified melancholic conditions as such by their perceived common cause – an excess of a notional fluid known as "black bile", which was commonly linked to the spleen. Hippocrates and other ancient physicians described melancholia as a distinct disease with mental and physical symptoms, including persistent fears and despondencies, poor appetite, abulia, sleeplessness, irritability, and agitation. Later, fixed delusions were added by Galen and other physicians to the list of symptoms. In the Middle Ages, the understanding of melancholia shifted to a religious perspective, with sadness seen as a vice and demonic possession, rather than somatic causes, as a potential cause of the disease.

Charles Le Brun (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl lə bʁœ̃]; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French painter, physiognomist, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist of all time". Le Brun was a dominant figure in 17th-century French art and was influenced by Nicolas Poussin.

Methods of divination can be found around the world, and many cultures practice the same methods under different names. During the Middle Ages, scholars coined terms for many of these methods—some of which had hitherto been unnamed—in Medieval Latin, very often utilizing the suffix -mantia when the art seemed more mystical (ultimately from Ancient Greek μαντεία, manteía, 'prophecy' or 'the power to prophesy') and the suffix -scopia when the art seemed more scientific (ultimately from Greek σκοπεῖν, skopeîn, 'to observe'). Names like drimimantia, nigromantia, and horoscopia arose, along with phrenology and physiognomy.

Some forms of divination are much older than the Middle Ages, like haruspication, while others such as coffee-based tasseomancy originated in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Craniometry is measurement of the cranium (the main part of the skull), usually the human cranium. It is a subset of cephalometry, measurement of the head, which in humans is a subset of anthropometry, measurement of the human body. It is distinct from phrenology, the pseudoscience that tried to link personality and character to head shape, and physiognomy, which tried the same for facial features.

Today, physical and forensic anthropologists use craniometry to study the evolution of human populations, determining the origin of ancient remains such as the Kennewick Man.

Prima [et Secunda] pars Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis. (transl. 'The First [and Second] Part of the Storehouse of Images of the More Notable Men from the Beginning of Time, with Their Biographies Subjoined, Taken in Abbreviated Form from the Most Approved Authors.') is a compilation of woodcut portraits published in 1553 by Guillaume Rouillé, a French bookseller-publisher active in the early modern book trade of Lyon. Originally issued in Latin, French, and Italian editions, the book presents the portraits in a medallion format, largely arranged in a supposed chronological order. The subjects range from figures of the Old Testament and Greco-Roman mythology to contemporary individuals of the mid-16th century. Many of the portraits are imaginative rather than historically grounded, shaped by Rouillé's interest in physiognomy—the study that sought to relate facial features to character and personality—and by the engraver's artistic license. Although the engraver is unnamed in the text, the 19th-century bibliographer Henri-Louis Baudrier attributed the work to Georges Reverdy (fr).

The book is divided into two sections: Prima pars ('First Part'), covering figures predating Christ, and Pars secunda ('Second Part'), documenting individuals from the Christian era onward. Typically bound as a single volume, these sections maintain separate pagination systems. The earliest editions contained 828 portraits each, with accompanying biographical summaries; the authorship of these biographies remains debated. The book's commercial success led to subsequent editions in multiple languages, which included a Spanish edition in 1561. The 1577 French edition expanded the collection with approximately 100 additional engravings and placed greater emphasis on Renaissance humanist scholars. The portraits mimic the style of ancient coinage but lack the numismatic precision required for scholarly reference. Rouillé simplified complex histories through standardized imagery and concise narratives so that the past would be more accessible to a general readership. His compilation influenced how individuals were depicted in European iconographic collections from the late 16th century into the 17th.

Cesare Lombroso (/lɒmˈbroʊsoʊ/ lom-BROH-soh, US also /lɔːmˈ-/ lawm-; Italian: [ˈtʃeːzare lomˈbroːzo, ˈtʃɛː-, -oːso]; born Ezechia Marco Lombroso; 6 November 1835 – 19 October 1909) was an Italian eugenicist, criminologist, phrenologist, physician, and founder of the Italian school of criminology. He is considered the founder of modern criminology by changing the Western notions of individual responsibility.

Lombroso rejected the established classical school, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature. Instead, using concepts drawn from physiognomy, degeneration theory, psychiatry, and Social Darwinism, Lombroso's theory of anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone "born criminal" could be identified by physical (congenital) defects, which confirmed a criminal as savage or atavistic.