# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Andreas Mayer: The Physiognomist of the Body: Balzac’s Pedestrian Observations
- **Event Start and End Date**: Thu, 19 Mar, 2026 at 11:00 am
- **Event Description**: In 1833, Honoré de Balzac published a short essay entitled La théorie de démarche. In this highly original text, he defines for the first time his historical-anthropological approach to the society of his epoch that would lead to the vast and unfinished project of The Human Comedy. Based on observations on the Parisian boulevards, the young writer sketches a "code of walking" whose axioms appear to be at first glance an extension of Lavater’s physiognomy which reads in a person's gait her or his virtues and vices, work habits and illnesses. However, a discussion of the complex genesis and contexts of this little studied essay can yield important insights into Balzac’s own practice of observation and the role of images.

Andreas Mayer is Directeur de recherches (Research professor) at the CNRS and teaches at the EHESS in Paris. He has worked at the MPI for the History of Science in Berlin and at the University of Cambridge. Several visiting fellowships and professorships (Wissenschaftskolleg, Humboldt University, Centre Marc Bloch Berlin, Villa I Tatti, University of Southern California). He has published widely on the history and epistemology of the human sciences.). His major recent publications are La Marche. Histoire d’une fascination savante (Paris, 2025), a new edition of Balzac’s La Théorie de la démarche (Paris, 2025), a new annotated German translation of Balzac’s Études Analytiques (published by Matthes & Seitz, Berlin), and Freud gegen den Strich (Berlin 2026).

? Grandville, Elégants, ca. 1830. © Musée Carnavalet, Paris

This will be a hybrid event.

VENUE
Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai
Via dei Servi 51
50122 Firenze, Italia

To participate online please register in advance via Zoom:
https://eu02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Iom_S1NGT9KfxuYvfMkULQ#/registration
--
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
Via Giuseppe Giusti 44
50121 Firenze, Italia
+39 055 24911-1
info@khi.fi.it

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- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/florence/andreas-mayer-the-physiognomist-of-the-body-balzac’s-pedestrian-observations/200029794540347
- **Event Categories**: meetups, art, literary-art, comedy
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 8

## Ticket Details

- **Ticket URL**: https://eu02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Iom_S1NGT9KfxuYvfMkULQ?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=florence-events

## Event venue details

- **city**: Florence
- **state**: TO
- **country**: Italy
- **location**: Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai
- **lat**: 43.77616
- **long**: 11.26013
- **full address**: Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai, Via dei servi 51,Florence, Italy

## Event Organizer details

- **affiliate_id**: 2
- **organizer**: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (https://allevents.in/org/kunsthistorisches-institut-in-florenz/8267846)

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: banner
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/343c453e9a955b91df5efd43fe672599055843bea498fbaae21a8d871b7ef52f-rimg-w1200-h610-dcbcc2c4-gmir?v=1773139786
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## FAQs

- **Q**: When is the event happening?
  - **A:** Thu, 19 Mar, 2026 at 11:00 am
- **Q**: Where is the event happening?
  - **A:** Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai, Via dei servi 51,Florence, Italy
- **Q**: Who is organizing the event?
  - **A:** Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
- **Q**: What type of event is this?
  - **A:** meetups, art, literary-art, comedy
- **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about Andreas Mayer: The Physiognomist of the Body: Balzac’s Pedestrian Observations ?
  - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents.

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