Treating gesture as a culturally established communicative code, analogous to language, the book sets out to describe, with reference to an explicitly defined c

Examines the character and history of the Italian people.

Gesture, or visible bodily action that is seen as intimately involved in the activity of speaking, has long fascinated scholars and laymen alike. Written by a l

In medieval society, gestures and speaking looks played an even more important part in public and private exchanges than they do today. Gestures meant more than

The emblem book was invented by the humanist lawyer Andrea Alciato in 1531. The preponderance of juridical and normative themes, of images of rule and infractio