Physiognomonics

Physiognomonics (Greek: Φυσιογνωμονικά; Latin: Physiognomonica) is a Ancient Greek pseudo-Aristotelian treatise on physiognomy attributed to Aristotle (and part of the Corpus Aristotelicum). It is a Peripatetic work,^[1] dated to the 4th/3rd century BC.^[2]^[3]

The treatise[edit]

Structure and content[edit]

The treatise is divided into sections on theory (805a1-808b10) and method (808b11-814b9). The connections between bodily features and character are treated in detail, cataloguing, for example, twelve kinds of nose, and the distinctive features of the cinaedus.^[5]

Connections to Aristotle[edit]

The pseudo-Aristotelian treatise begins with an allusion to Aristotle's Prior Analytics (II.27, on the body-soul correlation), and many of the physiognomic connections discussed are mentioned specifically in the History of Animals.^[5]

Influence[edit]

The author's systematic scheme of physiognomic relationships was not adopted by later writers on the subject; the proliferation of incompatible teachings had "the cumulative effect of undermining the authority of the profession as a whole."^[5]

"Review: [Aristoteles] Physiognomonica, edited by S. Vogt", Classical World 99.2 (2006), pp. 202-203.

T. Corey Brennan

Giampiera Raina (trans. and comm.), Pseudo Aristotele: Fisiognomica; Anonimo Latino: Il trattato di fisiognomica, 2nd ed., Milan: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1994.

Sabine Vogt (trans. and comm.), Aristoteles: Physiognomonica, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1999, 3-05-003487-4

ISBN

Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Φυσιογνωμονικά

Greek texts: 's text available via Greco interattivo; Richard Foerster's 1893 Teubner edition via Google Books