POLIPHILO’S DREAM: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE RENAISSANCE
THE LEO OLSCHKI COPY, WITH ALCHEMICAL ANNOTATIONS

COLONNA, Francesco. La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, cioè pugna d’amore in sogno. Dou’egli mostra, che tutte le cose humane non sono altro che sogno: et doue narra molt’altre cose degne di cognitione. In Vinegia: in casa de’ figliuoli di Aldo, 1545. [Venice: Sons of Aldus 1545].

Folio, 20th century full calf binding with gilt titles at spine, ff. [234]
Types 2:115R (text), 10:82R (titles, errata, a few chapter headings), 7:114 Greek (occasional words), 9:84 Greek (on errata page), and a square Hebrew font (inscriptions on b8r-v).
Aldine anchor and dolphin device on title and on verso of leaf F4.

170 large woodcuts traditionally attributed to the illuminator Benedetto Bordone, nine of which are full-page: sometimes were also attributed to Giovanni Bellini or to Raffaello.
39 woodcut initials.

Very scarce second issuance of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, the most renowned book of Italian Renaissance and the most beautiful illustrated book of its century.

Probably the most desired book by collectors of every time, the Poliphilo, the Hypnerotomachia served as a sort of pattern-book, influencing book illustration styles all over Europe.

As states Goldschmidt: «[A]rtists...craftsmen...decorators got hold of this incomparable album of compositins in the antique taste. In the countries beyond the Alps its repercussions are even more clearly traceable than in Italy itself, where a greater variety of other sources for the study of clasical forms were to be found. In the north an astonishing proportion of all Renaissance ornament and accessory design can clearly be proved to derive from Colonna’s Polifilo».

George Painter, in his fascinating essay, gives an appropriate context to the book: «Gutenberg’s forty-two-Line Bible of 1455 and the Hypnerotomachia of 1499 confront one another from opposite ends of the incunable period with equal and contrasting pre-eminence. The Gutenberg Bible is sombrely and sternly German, gothic, Christian, and medieval; the Hypnerotomachia is radiantly and graciously Italian, classic, pagan, and renascent. These are the two supreme masterpieces of the art of printing, and stand at the two poles of human endeavour and desire».

CONTENT: In search of his lost love, Polia, Polifilo is carried through a dream-world of pyramids and obelisks, ruined temples, bacchanalian festivals, and other classical scenes before finding her and attaining enlightenment at the temple of Venus. It «teaches that all human existence is no more than a dream, and along the way records many things most worthy of knowledge».

Provenance: 1. Very interesting contemporary annotations, probably with alchemical or symbolic meanings. 2. The Leo Olschki copy (his ex-libris at the corner of the first paste down).

References: Adams C-2414; Mortimer Harvard Italian 131; Renouard, Alde, pp.133-34; Essling Pt. I, vol.2:2, no.119; Sander 2057. CNCE 12823. E.P. Goldschmidt, The Printed Book of the Renaissance, 1950, p. 52.

An excellent copy, very clean and crisp, with the Priapus woodcut unmutilated and with a distinguished provenance.