Johann Kaspar Lavater

Matthew J. A. Green (University of Nottingham)
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Born in the city-state of Zürich on November 15, 1741, Johann Caspar Lavater rose from a background of relative prosperity to a position of international renown in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Though little known today, Lavater had become a household name across Europe when he died on January 2, 1801, as a result of injuries sustained fighting for Swiss nationalism against the Jacobins. An ordained minister in the Zwinglian Reformed Church, Lavater gained notoriety first as a polemicist, then through his widely read, though by no means unanimously endorsed, publications on physiognomy. Though Lavater’s attempts to systematise this practice of reading character in the lineaments of the body, which he alternately characterised as a “science” and an “art”, has by now…

2812 words

Citation: J. A. Green, Matthew. "Johann Kaspar Lavater". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2633, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2633 Johann Kaspar Lavater 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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