L'Arte de' cenni di Giovanni Bonifacio

L’arte de’ cenni (Vicenza 1616) is an unusual and original work, written by GiovanniBonifacio, councillor and jurisconsult who lived between XVI and XVII centuries (he wasborn in Rovigo in 1547 and died in Padua in 1635). He was member of several CulturalAcademies (Accademia dei Solleciti and Accademia dei Burchelati in Treviso, AccademiaVeneziana in Venice, Accademia dei Fecondi in Padua, Accademia Filarmonica inVerona). The book is dedicated to the Filarmonica of Verona, that Giovanni Bonifacioentered in 1615, but the text seems to be written more than a decade earlier, probably in1592-1594.L’arte de’ cenni is one of the first dictionary entirely dedicated to gestures, nods, acts,symbolic forms and ways typical of a world which is investigated with a medieval methodand modern curiosity. It resembles courtesy treatises and follows meanwhile contemporarydoctrines such as Phisiognomy (the author knows and disputes Giambattista Della Porta).The text analyses gestures, their significance and cultural implications, as well as theirsymbolic meaning and effect on a social life whose foundation is based on simulation anddissimulation.To recover such rich, though heterogeneous, material is no doubt of historical interest; butin particular it could be of interest to people who work on gestural codes, whether theystudy expression modalities, possible influences on gesture, individual behaviourorganization, or the nature of shared codes ad interpersonal relationships.The present paper consists of three parts: the first one deals with Bonifacio’s biography,the history of gestures and the concept of gesture that emerges from Bonifacio’s treatise;the second part deals with the relationship existing between the book and the world ofimages. The third part explains how the Arte de’ cenni was reviewed by the critics from1616 to the present day, and contain a modern transcription of the full text.