Where does the phrase "the many faces of ..." originate?

Question

There are countless titles of the form "the many faces of ...".  A quick Google search finds nearly 500 million hits, starting with "The Many Faces of the Public Domain", "The Many Faces of the Freshman Seminar", "The Many Faces of Go" and "The Many Faces of Influence Infographic".
What is the origin of the phrase "the many faces of ...", in particular when used in a title?

The closest I came to finding an answer was a search using Google Ngram Viewer.  This seems to show that use of "the many faces of ..." really took off around 1955.  Thus, probably the origin of the phrase is neither the Bible nor Shakespeare.

Hugo · Accepted Answer

The earliest example I found in Google Books is from 1820, and refers to the faces of a church, in Rome, in the nineteenth century, Volume 2 by Charlotte Anne Waldie Eaton (written in 1817 or 1818):

A still more hideous statue of Henry IV. of France, graces one of the many faces of this church, and conveys no favourable impression of the advancement of the arts at that period.

Or, without the definite article, in 1620's Works, both Moral and Natural by Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Philosophus), Thomas Lodge:

So then, these infinite drops of water, carried by the raine that falleth, are as many mirrors, and haue as many faces of the Sunne.

The oldest title in the British Library catalogue is The Many Faces of Love / translated from the French by P. Mairet. by Hubert Benoit, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1955 (and another).

Where does the phrase "the many faces of ..." originate?

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question