Gall's Cranioscopy
Franz Joseph Gall, c. 1800
$82
Print check at 8 x 10 in: 151 dpi, good. Trimmed 1.9% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $24.80 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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A skull marked across its surface with the seats of the faculties — the original cranioscopy of Franz Joseph Gall, the Viennese anatomist who around 1800 proposed that the brain was a bundle of separate organs, each swelling the skull above it in proportion to its power. Gall was a serious anatomist whose work on the brain's structure had real merit; the doctrine he built on top of it did not. This plate shows his map of the head, the founding image of a movement that would sweep the century. We present it plainly as history — the anatomy sound, the phrenology unsound, both preserved in one striking diagram.
- Maker
- Franz Joseph Gall
- Date
- c. 1800
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- Cranioscopy plate, c. 1800 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Cranioscopy plate, c. 1800 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00472
| Picture | 8 x 10 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 9.6 x 11.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | 151 | Good | Trimmed 1.9% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | 108 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 16 in | 94 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 16 x 20 in | 75 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 18 x 24 in | 63 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 24 x 30 in | 50 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
| 30 x 40 in | 37 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 31 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | Wrong shape: a 18% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,238 x 1,518 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 138, lights 255 of 255; 14.4% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 48.68
- Notes
- Pure white on 14% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
The Hermetica
The esoteric tradition’s emblems, astrological figures and the old charts of palmistry and phrenology.
All 58 pieces from The Hermetica
