Chironomia / A treatise on rhetorical delivery
by Gilbert
Austin
First published 1806
Irish educator, clergyman and author Gilbert Austin is best
known for his book Chironomia, or a Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery, in which
built on Cicero and Quintilian’s words on the importance of voice and gesture
to oration. Austin gives a detailed consideration of gestures and their effect
on an audience, producing an instruction book to allow the practice of good
habits, such as the role of gesture in accompany words for more effective
speech-making. After tracing the study of delivery, from the classical world to
the 18th century, he offers training with illustrations depicting positions of
the feet, body and hands (he saw gestures as the action and position of all
body parts). Austin is concerned with marrying well-conceived, appropriate
delivery with words, and avoiding natural/unconceived gesture.