Bell, Anatomy of Expression, 1806
Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting. By Charles Bell. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row. 1806.
Custom black clamshell, wool-lined, with restorations. Gilt goat and banner reading “Let the deed shaw” on front of clamshell (apparently the Clan Fleming of lowland Scotland). Book is quarto in original full diced brown calf with gilt tooling. Joints/hinges restored. Corners tightened. Mild loss at head and foot of spine. Mild splay. Marbled end papers. Prior dealer’s notes on blank and recto of rfep. Mild foxing of text leaves (mostly bright), but more advanced on plates. Binding tight.
Ffep, blank, title – xii, 186 pages. Blank, rfep. With 6 plates and 26 figures.
Sir Charles Bell (1774 – 1842). His name is immortalized in Bell’s Palsy.
“Bell’s artistic and literary skills combined with his knowledge of anatomy and physiology to make this work a tour de force of art history and the anatomical and physiological basis of facial expression” (GM 6604.92)
Heirs 1299: “In the opening Advertisement Bell states: "Anatomy stands related to the arts of design, as the grammar of that language in which they address us. The expressions, attitudes, and movements of the human figure, are the characters of this language; which is adapted to convey the effect of historical narration, as well as to show the working of human passion, and give the most striking and lively indications of intellectual power and energy." Both the text and the numerous illustrations in this unusual book make fascinating reading, and they drew the attention and praise of no less a person than Charles Darwin.”
Per Heirs 1294: “Sir Charles Bell, a Scottish surgeon and anatomist, was one of the greatest scientists in medical history. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he spent the major part of his professional career in London before returning to his alma mater as professor of surgery for the last few years of his life. Among his many contributions to medical science may be included his role in establishing the motor and sensory pathways of the spinal nerves. All his discoveries were, in his own phrase, "deductions from anatomy." In addition to his preeminence as an anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, and surgeon, Bell was also an accomplished artist.”
