Kalogynomia, or the Laws of Female Beauty: Being the Elementary Principles of That Science. With Twenty-Four Plates.

8vo.(4.75" x 7.875") 1821. London: Printed for J.J. Stockdale. First Edition. 331 pp. Only 16 of 24 plates. Scarce title. Full pebbled brown cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Edgewear, corners bumped and rubbed with loss to tips, head and foot of spine frayed with small loss (see pic). Front gutter starting at head, still secure. Bookplate to first free endpaper of A.R. Sutherland, M.D., with several booksellers' notes in pencil around it. Intermittent foxing throughout, heavier towards front, to some signatures. Now only 16 of 24 plates present. Kalogynomia, or the Laws of Female Beauty: Being the Elementary Principles of That Science" is a fascinating and somewhat obscure 19th-century text written by T. Bell (Thomas Bell), published in 1821 in London. The title refers to the study of "kalogyny"—a neologism combining the Greek words for beauty (kalos) and woman (gynē)—which Bell attempts to frame as a kind of scientific or philosophical discipline focused on female beauty.