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Nine Books on the Nature of Things
Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
The catalogue includes blinking, downcast gaze, brightness, redness, and quick movement as separate supposed signs. These descriptions show that physiognomy in the text is not confined to fixed dimensions. They also sit uneasily beside the later preference for unalterable bodily marks. The vocabulary describes movements and appearances; their alleged moral meanings are assertions of the text, not reliable evidence of character.
Places to read
- Book 9 · Signature · Passage 26Latin“Oculi assidue nictantes”