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.
WorkNotes
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.
Work Notes
Image Notes:
"The amputated and scattered members of these two maidens of tender age, forced to breathe their last while yet ungrown, finally resembled a ghastly butcher's shop. Alas, what a cruel spectacle! What a horrible form of burial! Think, gentle nymphs, of how terrified I was by the sight of such inhuman evil and cruelty, finding myself bare, defenceless and fearful beyond measure. I lay low, hidden in a spiny briar-brake, surrounded by thorny sloe-trees, dog-roses, prickle-bushes and piercing Chirist's-thorn with its strong spines."
ReproNotes
"The amputated and scattered members of these two maidens of tender age, forced to breathe their last while yet ungrown, finally resembled a ghastly butcher's shop. Alas, what a cruel spectacle! What a horrible form of burial! Think, gentle nymphs, of how terrified I was by the sight of such inhuman evil and cruelty, finding myself bare, defenceless and fearful beyond measure. I lay low, hidden in a spiny briar-brake, surrounded by thorny sloe-trees, dog-roses, prickle-bushes and piercing Chirist's-thorn with its strong spines."
Image Notes
Rights Type:
fair use
ReproRightsDetails
fair use
Rights Type
Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile
