Two parts in one volume small octavo handsome half speckled leather on 5 raised bands with red gilt titled spine label and marbled boards. Titlepage +[24]pp prelims +287pp +[5]pp index +plate +errata +blanks; Titlepage to Chironomia + [14]pp prelims +146pp +[2]pp errata & blank. First titlepage cropped at foot affecting the date which has been written in above; 2nd titlepage better centered and complete with all publisher's details and date 1644. Ownership E.W. Sergeant to blank area of first title, the folding plates are remargined to outer edge, paper slightly browned & some pages faintly dampmarked, but supple and strong without any tears or writing. Printed side notes and pointing hands are all complete with a margin. Both first editions published by Harper but sold by different booksellers thus there is probably no precedence. *The author was a medical doctor and writer. This is the first book specifically dealing with sign language and with gesture illustrations. Bulwer was intereted in schooling for the deaf and suggests that manual alphabets could be "ordered to serve for privy ciphers for any secret intimation" (Chironomia, p149). Chirologia shows examples of manual gestures, their meanings and their uses drawing on a wide range of sources from literature, religion and Medicine. Chironomia, which the author considered as a separate work, was the result (Wing B5462A & B5467 ESTC r14061, Garrison & Morton 3346-7).