Gesture in Naples and gesture in classical antiquity

Andrea de Jorio´ s La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano (Gestual expression of the ancients in the light of Neapolitan gesturing) was first published in Naples in 1832. It soon became famous for its description and depictions of Neapolitan gestures, but it has only recently been recognized as the first ethnographic study of gesture. The book treats gesture as a culturally established communicative code, analogous to language; with reference to an explicitly defined cultural group, it describes the gestural expressions of ordinary people as used in everyday life.