author
Johann Caspar Lavater
1741–1801
A Swiss pastor, poet, and writer of the Enlightenment, best known for making physiognomy famous across Europe. His work mixed religious feeling, moral reflection, and a now-discredited belief that character could be read from the face.
2 Audiobooks
The Pocket Lavater; or, The Science of Physiognomy To which is added an inquiry into the analogy existing between brute and human physiognomy
by Johann Caspar Lavater, Giambattista della Porta
J. C. Lavater's Sittenbüchlein für das Gesinde
by Johann Caspar Lavater
About the author
Born in Zurich in 1741, Johann Caspar Lavater became a Reformed pastor at St. Peter’s Church and was also widely known as a poet, writer, and religious thinker. He moved in the lively intellectual world of the late Enlightenment and built friendships and correspondences with major figures of his time.
Lavater is remembered above all for his writings on physiognomy, especially Essays on Physiognomy, which brought him international attention. In that work he argued that a person’s inner character could be understood from facial features and expression, an idea that attracted great interest in his own day but is no longer accepted as a valid science.
His life was shaped by both faith and public controversy. Alongside sermons, reflections, and literary works, he remained an influential Protestant voice in Zurich until his death in 1801, after being wounded during the turmoil surrounding the French occupation of the city.