The Strife of Love in a Dream
Poliphilo kneels before Queen Eleuterylida |
| Author |
Francesco Colonna |
| Original title |
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, ubi
humana omnia non nisi so-
mnium esse ostendit, at-
que obiter plurima
scitu sanequam
digna com-
memo-
rat |
| Translator |
Joscelyn Godwin |
| Illustrator |
Benedetto Bordon (?) |
| Country |
Italy |
| Language |
Italian |
| Genre(s) |
Romance, allegorical fantasy |
| Publisher |
Aldus Manutius |
| Publication date |
1499 |
| Published in English |
1999 |
| Media type |
Print (hardcover) |
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (in Greek Υπνερωτομαχία
Πολύφιλου, in English Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream), first published in Venice, 1499, is a famous example of early printing, the most famous illustrated book among incunabula. Presented in elegantly-designed page layout (compare the Gutenberg canon), with refined woodcut illustrations in an
Early Renaissance style, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili presents a mysterious arcane
allegory in which Poliphilo pursues an erotic fantasy through a dreamlike landscape, and is at
last reconciled with his love by the Fountain of Venus.
History
The book was printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice in
December 1499. The book is anonymous, but an acrostic formed by the first, elaborately decorated letter in each chapter in the original Italian reads POLIAM
FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT, "Brother Francesco Colonna dearly loved Polia."
However, the book has also been attributed to Leon Battista Alberti by several
scholars, and earlier, to Lorenzo de Medici. The latest contribution in this respect
was the attribution to Aldus Manutius, and arguably, a Francesco Colonna, a wealthy Roman
Governor. The author of the illustrations is even less certain, but contemporary opinion gives the work to Benedetto Bordon.
The subject matter lies within the tradition of the genre of Romance within the
conventions of courtly love, which still provided engaging thematic matter for Quattrocento
aristocrats.
The text of the book is written in a bizarre Latinate Italian, full of words coined based on Latin and Greek
roots without explanation. The book, however, also includes words from the Italian
language, as well as illustrations including Arabic and Hebrew words; Colonna also invented new languages when the ones available
to him were inaccurate. (It also contains some uses of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but they are
not authentic.) Its story, which is set in 1467, consists of precious and elaborate descriptions of
scenes involving the title character, Poliphilo ("Lover of Many Things", from Greek Polú "Many" + Philos
"Beloved"), as he wanders a sort of bucolic-classical dreamland in search of his love Polia
("Many Things"). The author's style is elaborately descriptive and unsparing in its use of superlatives.
The book has long been sought after as one of the most beautiful incunabula ever printed.
The typography is famous for its quality and clarity, in a roman typeface cut by
Francesco Griffo, which Aldus had first used in February 1495 for De Aetna of
Pietro Bembo, for which reason the typeface was named Bembo
when it was revived in 1929 by Stanley Morison.
The book is illustrated with 168 exquisite woodcuts showing the scenery, architectural
settings, and some of the characters Poliphilo encounters in his dreams. The illustrations are perhaps the best part of the book;
delicate and evocative, they depict scenes from Poliphilo's adventures, or the architectural features over which the text
rhapsodizes, in a simultaneously stark and ornate line art style which perfectly integrates
with the type. These images are also interesting because they shed light on what people in the Renaissance fancied about the alleged æsthetic qualities of
Greek and Roman antiquities.
The psychologist Carl Jung admired the book, believing
the dream images presaged his theory of archetypes. The style of the woodcut illustrations had
a great influence on late-19th century English illustrators, such as Aubrey Beardsley,
Walter Crane and Anning Bell.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was partially translated into English in a
London edition of 1592 by "R. D.", believed to be Robert Dallington, who gave it the title by which it is best known in English, The Strife of Love in a
Dream. A facsimile of this edition can be seen online at the Internet Archive.
The first complete English version was published by Thames & Hudson in 1999, five hundred
years after the original. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, the Strife of Love in a Dream was translated by musicologist
Joscelyn Godwin and typeset in Monotype
Corporation's typeface "Poliphilus", a re-creation of Griffo's original. A smaller format paperback edition was published
in February 2005. However, probably due to the difficulty of the original, the translation is recreated in standard, modern
language, rather than following the original's pattern of coining and borrowing words.
For the first time, eight different monuments described in the Hypnerotomachia have been brought to life through
architectural reconstructions, by using computer generated mediums. After 10 years of research and development, this resource of
more than 50 original artist reconstructions was finally published in December 2006. The author, Esteban A. Cruz, presents this
work with the objective of illustrating the aesthetic and antiquarian qualities of Poliphilus' visions. This was accomplished by
using graphical and architectural forms of critical analysis, and by overcoming the challenges of correctly interpreting the
encyclopaedic amount of archeological and philological references.
Plot summary
Poliphilo from a page of the
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
The book begins with Poliphilo, who has spent a restless night because his beloved, Polia (literally "Many
Things"), shunned him. Poliphilo is transported into a wild forest, where he gets lost, encounters dragons, wolves and
maidens and a large variety of architecture, escapes, and falls asleep once more. He then awakens in a second dream, dreamed
within the first. In the dream, he is taken by some nymphs to meet their queen, and there he is
asked to declare his love for Polia, which he does. He is then directed by two nymphs to three gates. He chooses the third, and
there he discovers his beloved. They are taken by some more nymphs to a temple to be engaged. Along the way they come across five
triumphal processions celebrating the union of the lovers. Then they are taken to the island of Cythera by barge, with Cupid as the boatswain; there they see another triumphal
procession celebrating their union. The narrative is uninterrupted, and a second voice takes over, as Polia describes his
erotomachia from her own point of view.
Polia kisses Poliphilo back to life
Poliphilo resumes his narrative after one-fifth of the book. Polia rejects Poliphilo, but Cupid appears to her in a vision and
compels her to return and kiss Poliphilo, who has fallen into a deathlike swoon at her feet, back to life. Venus blesses their
love, and the lovers are united at last. As Poliphilo is about to take Polia into his arms, Polia vanishes into thin air and
Poliphilo wakes up.
Characters in Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
Gallery
Allusions/references from other works
Re-discovering Antiquity Through the Dreams of Poliphilus
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Re-Discovering Antiquity Through The Dreams Of Poliphilus by Esteban Alejandro Cruz features
more than 50 original colour reconstructions of the architecture and topiary gardens of eight monuments described in the
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: A Great Pyramid, A Great Hippodromus, An Elephant bearing an Obelisk, A Monument to the
Un-Happy Horse, the Grand Arch, The Palace and Gardens of Queen Eleutirillide (Liberty), The Temple to Venus Physizoa, and the
Polyandrion (Cemetery of Lost Loves).
Gargantua and Pantagruel
It is also briefly mentioned in The Histories of Gargantua and
Pantagruel (1532-34) by François Rabelais:
- "Far otherwise did heretofore the sages of Egypt, when they wrote by letters, which they called hieroglyphics, which none
understood who were not skilled in the virtue, property, and nature of the things represented by them. Of which Orus Apollon hath
in Greek composed two books, and Polyphilus, in his Dream of Love, set down more.."
-
- –Book. 1, Ch. 9.
Polyphilo : or The Dark Forest Revisited - An Erotic Epiphany of Architecture
Polyphilo : or The Dark Forest Revisited - An Erotic Epiphany of Architecture is a modern re-writing of
Polyphilo's tale by Alberto Pérez-Gómez. The non-fictional preface to this book by
this eminent architectural historian is an excellent introduction to the Hypnerotomachia.
The Club Dumas
The 1545 edition of the Hypnerotomachia is mentioned in the third chapter of the
novel The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
Love and Sleep
The title and many themes of John Crowley's 1994 novel,
Love and Sleep, were derived from the Hypnerotomachia. Significantly, Love and
Sleep was written prior to the renewed popularity of the Hypnerotomachia resulting from the 500th anniversary of its
publication.
The Rule of Four
In 2004, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason wrote a novel entitled The Rule of Four about two Princeton University
students who try to decode the mysteries of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. In the novel, an alternative theory of authorship
is advanced, in which the author is a patrician Roman by the name of Francesco
Colonna, rather than the Venetian monk. As a companion and commentary to the novel Joscelyn Godwin wrote The Real Rule of Four: The Unauthorized Guide to The New York Times
Bestseller (2004, ISBN 1-932857-08-7) in which he investigates the history of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and its use in
the novel.
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
Umberto Eco's 2004 novel The
Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana features an amnesiac protagonist, a bibliophile and dealer in rare books nicknamed
Yambo, whose doctoral thesis was written on the Hypnerotomachia.
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The text makes frequent references to classical geography and mythology, mostly by way of comparison.
References
- Thames & Hudson (1999). Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, the Strife of Love in a Dream. ISBN 0-500-01942-8, a modern
English translation.
- Cruz, Esteban Alejandro, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Re-discovering Antiquity Through the Dreams of Poliphilus
Victoria: Trafford Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-4120-5324-2. Artist reconstructions of the architecture and landscapes described by
Poliphilus during his amorous quest through Antiquity.
- Blunt, Anthony, "The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili in Seventeenth Century France", Journal
of Warburg and Courtauld, October 1937
- Fiertz-David, Linda. The Dream of Poliphilo: The Soul in Love, Spring Publications, Dallas, 1987 (Bollingen
Lectures).
- Gombrich, E.H., Symbolic Images, Phaidon, Oxford, 1975,
"Hypnertomachiana".
- Lefaivre, Liane. Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili : Re-cognizing the architectural body in
the early Italian Renaissance. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: MIT Press 1997. ISBN 0-262-12204-9.
- Pérez-Gómez, Alberto. Polyphilo or The Dark Forest Revisited: An Erotic Epiphany of Architecture. Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press 1992. ISBN 0-262-16129-X, Introduction by Alberto Pérez-Gómez.
- Schmeiser, Leonhard. Das Werk des Druckers. Untersuchungen zum Buch Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Maria Enzersdorf:
Edition Roesner 2003. ISBN 3-902300-10-8, Austrian philosopher argues for Aldus Manutius'
authorship.
- Tufte, Edward. Chapter in Beautiful
Evidence
External links
- The original 1499 edition:
-
- The 1592 English edition:
-
- Background and interpretation:
-
- Architectural re-constructions:
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