Andrea De Jorio b. 1769
An Italian antiquarian, Andrea De Jorio was the first
ethnographer of body language. He recognised in the frescos of old, that the
gestures depicted were recognisable from those on the streets of modern Naples.
De Jorio suggested a continuity from Classical times, showing the similarity of
hand gestures. He produced the first scholarly investigation of Neapolitan hand
gestures comparing them with those in Roman and Greek art. There have been
translations of de Jorio’s treatise including a scholarly translation from Adam
Kenyon.
Read La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire
napoletano (‘The mime of the Ancients investigated through Neapolitan gesture’)
(1832)