Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream

Exactly 500 years after its first publication by the great Venetian printing house Aldus Manutius, Francesco Colonna's weird, erotic, allegorical antiquarian tale, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was translated into English and reprinted in full, together with all of its 174 original - and enchanting - woodcut illustrations. It is one of the most important documents of Renaissance imagination and fantasy, and its woodcuts are a primary source for Renaissance ideas on both buildings and gardens. This translation was first published in 1999 in a large format that exactly matched the original in size, design and typography. Long prized by bibliophiles, pored over by generations of scholars, this classic book may now gain the wider audience its melancholy genius merits.

Francesco Colonna

New York : Thames & Hudson

the entire text translated for the first time into English with an introduction by Joscelyn Godwin ; with the original woodcut illustrations

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