John Bulwer (baptised 16 May 1606 – buried 16 October 1656Richards, G. ‘Bulwer, John (bap. 1606, died 1656)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edition) was an English physician and early Baconian natural philosopherWollock, J (1996). John Bulwer and his Italian sources. In Mirko Tavoni (Ed.), Italia ed Europa nella linguisticadel Rinascimento, Atti del convegno internazionale, 20–24 March 1991, Ferrara, p.419 who wrote five works exploring the body and human communication, particularly by gesture.Wollock, J. (2002). John Bulwer (1606–1656) and the significance of gesture in 17th-century theories of language and cognition. Gesture. 2 (2), He was the first person in England to propose educating deaf people,Dekesel, K. (1992) John Bulwer: The founding father of BSL research, Signpost, Winter 1992 & Spring 1993 P11-14 & p36- 46 the plans for an Academy he outlines in Philocophus and The Dumbe mans academie.
Life John Bulwer was born in London in 1606 and continued to work and live in the city until his death in October 1656 when he was buried in St Giles in the Fields, Westminster. He was the only surviving son of an apothecary named Thomas Bulwer and Marie Evans of St. Albans. On her death in 1638 John Bulwer inherited some property in St Albans from which he derived a small income.Wollock, J (1996). John Bulwer and his Italian sources. In Mirko Tavoni (Ed.), Italia ed Europa nella linguisticadel Rinascimento, Atti del convegno internazionale, 20–24 March 1991, Ferrara, p.420 Although information about his education is unclear, there is evidence that he was probably educated in Oxford as an unmatriculated student in the 1620s. His known friends had nearly all been educated there and he supported William Laud and the High Church party during the Civil War.Wollock, J. (1996a) John Bulwer and his Italian sources. In Mirko Tavoni (Ed.), Italia ed Europa nella linguisticadel Rinascimento (Atti del convegno internazionale, Ferrara, 20–24 March 1991) p419-420 Later in his life, between 1650 and 1653, he acquired a Medicinae Doctor (M.D.) at an unknown European university. In 1634 he married a woman known only as the "Widow of Middleton" who predeceased him.Wollock, J (1996). John Bulwer’s (1606–1656) place in the history of the deaf. Historiographia Linguistica, 23, 1/2, p2. No children from this marriage are known to have been born. Later in life Bulwer would adopt a girl named Chirothea Johnson, and, as he states in his will "bred her up from a child as my own". She may have been deaf.Wollock, J (1996). John Bulwer’s (1606–1656) place in the history of the deaf. Historiographia Linguistica, 23, 1/2, p34.Dekesel, K (1992). John Bulwer: The founding father of BSL research, Signpost, (Winter 1992 & Spring 1993) P38
Published works
During the English Civil War Bulwer stopped working as a physician and concentrated on his study and writing. All his written works were created between 1640 and until around 1653. In total Bulwer published five works, all of which were either early examples or the first of their kind.Geen, R & Tassinary L G (2002). The mechanization of emotional expression in John Bulwer's Pathomyotomia (1649), in The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 115, No. 2, (Summer, 2002), pp. 275-299Greenblatt, S (1995). Towards a universal language of motion: Reflections on a 17th century muscle man. In: Susan Leigh Foster Choreographing History. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. p25-30Norman, H J (1953). 'John Bulwer and his Anthropometamorphosis'. In Science, Medicine and History: essays on the evolution of scientific thought and medical practice written in honour of Charles Singer, 2, ed. E.A. Underwood, (1953), 82-99.Wollock, J (1996). John Bulwer’s (1606–1656) place in the history of the deaf. Historiographia Linguistica, 23, 1/2, p1–46.Dekesel, K (1992). John Bulwer: The founding father of BSL research, Signpost, (Winter 1992 & Spring 1993) P11-14 & p36- 46
Chirologia and Chironomia
Chirologia: or the naturall language of the hand. Composed of the speaking motions, and discoursing gestures thereof. Whereunto is added Chironomia: or, the art of manuall rhetoricke. Consisting of the natural expressions, digested by art in the hand, as the chiefest instrument of eloquence. London: Thomas Harper. 1644.
Although issued as a single volume Chirologia and Chironomia have different pagination. Bulwer always referred to them as separate works but over time they have come to be seen as a single volume. Francis Bacon had described gestures as "Transient Hieroglyphics" and suggested that Gesture should be the focus of a new scientific enquiry, Bulwer was the first to undertake the task. For Bulwer Gesture was a universal character of Reason. [The hand] “speaks all languages, and as universal character of Reason is generally understood and known by all Nations, among the formal differences of their Tongue. And being the only speech that is natural to Man, it may well be called the Tongue and General language of Human Nature, which, without teaching, men in all regions of the habitable world doe at the first sight most easily understand”
Chirologia is often cited as Bulwer’s link to later Deaf studies because it focuses on hand gesturesWollock, J. (1996b) John Bulwer’s (1606–1656) place in the history of the deaf. Historiographia Linguistica, 23, 1/2, p4 which have come to be seen as the domain of deaf communication. In fact the book only mentions the deaf in passing.Bulwer, J. (1644). Chirologia: or the naturall language of the hand. Composed of the speaking motions, and discoursing gestures thereof. Whereunto is added Chironomia: or, the art of manuall rhetoricke. Consisting of the naturall expressions, digested by art in the hand, as the chiefest instrument of eloquence. London: Thomas Harper. 1644. p. 5. He believed it was Nature's recompense that deaf people should communicate through gesture, "that wonder of necessity that Nature worketh in men that are born deafe and dumb; who can argue and dispute rhetorically by signes" (page 5). The handshapes described in Chirologia are still used in British Sign Language.Miles. D (1988) A Beginners Guide; BBC British Sign Language, p. 15. Bulwer does mention fingerspelling describing how "the ancients did...order an alphabet upon the joints of their fingers...showing those letters by a distinct and grammatical succession", in addition to their use as mnemonic devices Bulwer suggest that manual alphabets could be "ordered to serve for privy ciphers for any secret intimation" (Chironomia, p149). Chirologia is a compendium of manual gestures, citing their meaning and use from a wide range of sources; literary, Religious and Medical. Chironomia is a manual for the effective use of Gesture in public speaking.
Philocophus
Philocophus: or, the deafe and dumbe mans friend. Exhibiting the philosophicall verity of that subtile art, which may inable one with an observant eie, to heare what any man speaks by the moving of his lips. Upon the same ground, with the advantage of an historical exemplification, apparently proving, that a man borne deafe and dumbe, may be taught to heare the sound of words with his eie, & thence learne to speake with his tongue. By J. B. surnamed the Chirosopher London: Humphrey Moseley 1648.Reprinted by the British Deaf History Society
Bulwer was the first person in Britain to discuss the possibility educating deaf people, and the novelty of the idea, and seeming impossibility, is shown when Bulwer tries to persuade "some rational men" to support the establishment of a "new Academy", to them "the attempt seemed paradoxical, prodigious and hyperbolical; that it did rather amuse than satisfy their understanding" (from the introduction). To persuade these "knowing men" of "the philosophical verity of this Art" (the education of the deaf) he sets out in this volume to explain the theory and empirical evidence for its possibility. Some evidence comes from the account given by Sir Kenelm Digby of a meeting between the Prince of Wales and a deaf Spanish nobleman, Don Luis Velasco. As well as drawing heavily on this account, he also collects information about deaf people living in Britain at that time.Bulwer, J. (1648). Philocophus: or, the deafe and dumbe mans friend. Exhibiting the philosophicall verity of that subtile art, which may inable one with an observant eie, to heare what any man speaks by the moving of his lips. Upon the same ground, with the advantage of an historical exemplification, apparently proving, that a man borne deafe and dumbe, may be taught to heare the sound of words with his eie, & thence learne to speake with his tongue.; By I. B. sirnamed the Chirosopher London: Humphrey Moseley. p106-109 Through observations that some deaf people can "hear" the vibrations produced by musical instruments by bone conduction through the teeth, Bulwer came to believe that the body had a commonwealth of senses, for instance the eye could be used to perceive speech by lip-reading.Bulwer, J. (1648). Philocophus: or, the deafe and dumbe mans friend. Exhibiting the philosophicall verity of that subtile art, which may inable one with an observant eie, to heare what any man speaks by the moving of his lips. Upon the same ground, with the advantage of an historical exemplification, apparently proving, that a man borne deafe and dumbe, may be taught to heare the sound of words with his eie, & thence learne to speake with his tongue.; By I. B. sirnamed the Chirosopher London: Humphrey Moseley. from the unnumbered introduction
Pathomyotomia
Pathomyotomia, or a Dissection of the significant Muscles of the Affections of the Mind. Being an Essay to a new Method of observing the most important movings of the Muscles of the Head, as they are the neerest and Immediate Organs of the Voluntarie or Impetuous motions of the Mind. With the Proposall of a new Nomenclature of the Muscles. London: Humphrey Moseley. 1649
This was the first substantial English language work on the muscular basis of emotional expressions.Greenblatt, S. (1995). Towards a universal language of motion: Reflections on a 17th century muscle man. In: Susan Leigh Foster Choreographing History. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press p26 The goal was to present a new and more intuitive system for naming the muscles of the face. A system in which muscles would be named after the passions they were used to express. It would be 200 years before similar ideas would surface in French anatomist and electrophysiologist Duchenne de Boulogne's Mecanisme de la Physiognomie Humaine (1862). The other observation of Duchenne that Bulwer foreshadowed was that the contraction of the orbicularis oculi (the muscle encircling the eye) accompanies genuine smiles of happiness but does not occur in deceptive or non-joyful smiles.Geen, T.R. & Tassinary, L.G. (2002). The mechanization of emotional expression in John Bulwer's "Pathomyotomia." American Journal of Psychology, 115(2) pp. 275-299
Anthropometamorphosis
Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d, or the Artificial Changeling. Historically presented, in the mad and cruel Gallantry, foolish Bravery, ridiculous Beauty, filthy Fineness, and loathesome Loveliness of most Nations, fashioning & altering their Bodies from the Mould intended by Nature. With a Vindication of the Regular Beauty and Honesty of Nature, and an Appendix of the Pedigree of the English Gallant. London: J. Hardesty. 1650