Detail View: Catena-Historic Gardens and Landscapes Archive: Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile

Catena-Historic Gardens and Landscapes Archive

200082

Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile

[An artificial fountain]

1561

Europe--France--Ile-de-France--Paris

Creation

French

Renaissance

author Colonna, Francesco Attributed 1433/34-1527 Italian

paper

woodcut (process)

33.8 x 22.2 cm

New York, NY, USA, Private Collection, New York

Villas

Books

Romances; Pleasure gardens; Dreams; Banquets; Fountains; Hand washing; Smell; Floral patterns; Wheels; Gadroons

Collation: a6 A-Bb6 Cc8 = 164 ff., complete. With engraved woodcut title-page and 181 woodcuts illustrating the text, of which 13 are full-page, several crible initials in preliminary text, large 9-line floriated arabesque initials forming an acrostic throughout, Kerver's unicorn device (Renouard 515) on verso of final leaf. Folio, 338 x 222 mm, bound in nineteenth-century calf, marbled endpapers. A superb French Edition of the most famous illustrated book of the Renaissance. A large number of these magnificent illustrations are dedicated to gardens. The designer of the original 1499 Aldus woodcuts remains unidentified although speculation has included artists such as Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. Nor has the author of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili been identified with certainty. It was probably written by Francesco Colonna, a Dominican from Treviso, in Latin about 1445. Its two main themes are the allegorical dream-journey of Poliphilus in search of his love Polia, and the praise of Antique art and culture.

"The broad open basin of this fountain was cleverly supported on four wheels, allowing it to run on the table-tops and thus conveniently wash the hands of all the reclining guests. The centre of the fountain rose up higher than the rim, which was studded with round gems and formed into gadroons, as was the hollow of the bowl all around, and there were other ornaments. A noble vase stood upon this central prominence, and on that another one of a different design. The two vases were joined together by two handles that were exquisitely finished, elegantly worked and richly ornamented. Among the other inestimable decorations, the top of it was formed into a flower, above which was a diamond shaped like a pear with its pointed end fixed in the flower. It flashed all around, and was of a size never before seen or imagined. To judge by my sense of smell, the water was scented with rose mixed with sugar, lemon peel, and a little amber or benzoin, carefully proportioned to make a sweet and pleasant odour."

fair use