Accession number
PML 373
Creator
Colonna, Francesco, -1527.
Object title
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili : vbi hvmana omnia non nisisomnivm [sic] esse docet atqve obiter plvrima scitv sane qvam digna commemorat.
Published
Venetiis : in aedibus Aldi Manutii [for Leonardus Crassus], Mense decembri .M.ID. [December 1499].
Description
[468] pages : illustrations (171 woodcuts) ; 33 cm (fol.)
Credit line
Purchased with the Irwin collection, 1900.
Notes
Title from half-title page (leaf [pi]1r).
Imprint from colophon (leaf F4r).
Printed in Aldus's types 2:114R, 7:114Gr, 9:84Gr, 10:82R, and Hebrew type.
Signatures: [pi]⁴; a-y⁸ z¹⁰; A-E⁸ F⁴: 234 leaves. Leaf [pi]2 signed 2.
Paper format: Super-chancery and Chancery folio (or Median folio)
"Cavtvm est ne qvis in dominio ill. s.v impvne hvnc librvm qveat imprimere"--T.p. This privilege is not included with the similar title on p. [9].
The initial letters of successive chapters in this work form an acrostic that includes the author's name: Poliam frater Franciscus Columna permauit.
Ascribed to Leon Battista Alberti by Liane Lefaivre in Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 1997.
Ascribed by Maurizio Calvesi to a different Francesco Colonna, ca. 1453-1517, in La "pugna d'amore in sogno" di Francesco Colonna romano, 1996.
In the Lilly Library copy the last two letters of the last word, SANEQVAM, on line 5 in the title on p. [9] appear to have been stamped in after an erasure. In PML copy, only "AM" are stamped.
Letter from Leonardus Crassus Veronensis to Guido, Duke of Urbino, on p. [2-3].
"Io. Bap. Scythae carmen ad clarissimum Leonardum Crassum artium ac iuris Pontificii consultum": pages [3-4].
Synopsis in Italian prose on p. [5] and in Italian verse on p. [6-7].
Epigrams by Andreas Maro Brixianus on p. [8].
"Poliphilvs Poliae s.p.d.": p. [10].
"Li errori del libro" on p. [467].
Woodcuts: illustrations and initials. Woodcuts on leaves [10b] and [21a] signed: b (sometimes attributed to Benedetto Bordone).
39 lines. Catchwords.
For reset sheets and variant copies, see Neil Harris in Gutenberg Jahrbuch (2006), pp.245-75, see also C. Bühler in Festschrift für Claus Nissen, Wiesbaden, 1973, pp. 36-42. (ISTC).
P. Scapecchi, in Accademie e biblioteche d'Italia 51 (1983) pp.286-98 and 53 (1985) pp.68-73, argues that Columna is the dedicatee, and that the author is Fra Eliseo da Treviso. For further notes and references on the authorship, see CIBN (ISTC).
PML copy leaf dimensions: 31.5 x 21.2 cm., slightly trimmed. PML copy partially on large paper (quires [pi] and a-z); part II (quires A-F) on regular-sized paper, but bound with part I at an early date (see notes by Neil Harris in dept. file).
PML copy with original cancellandum (leaf a2.7), as described by Curt Bühler as variant b, but is actually the first setting.
Imprint from colophon (leaf F4r).
Printed in Aldus's types 2:114R, 7:114Gr, 9:84Gr, 10:82R, and Hebrew type.
Signatures: [pi]⁴; a-y⁸ z¹⁰; A-E⁸ F⁴: 234 leaves. Leaf [pi]2 signed 2.
Paper format: Super-chancery and Chancery folio (or Median folio)
"Cavtvm est ne qvis in dominio ill. s.v impvne hvnc librvm qveat imprimere"--T.p. This privilege is not included with the similar title on p. [9].
The initial letters of successive chapters in this work form an acrostic that includes the author's name: Poliam frater Franciscus Columna permauit.
Ascribed to Leon Battista Alberti by Liane Lefaivre in Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 1997.
Ascribed by Maurizio Calvesi to a different Francesco Colonna, ca. 1453-1517, in La "pugna d'amore in sogno" di Francesco Colonna romano, 1996.
In the Lilly Library copy the last two letters of the last word, SANEQVAM, on line 5 in the title on p. [9] appear to have been stamped in after an erasure. In PML copy, only "AM" are stamped.
Letter from Leonardus Crassus Veronensis to Guido, Duke of Urbino, on p. [2-3].
"Io. Bap. Scythae carmen ad clarissimum Leonardum Crassum artium ac iuris Pontificii consultum": pages [3-4].
Synopsis in Italian prose on p. [5] and in Italian verse on p. [6-7].
Epigrams by Andreas Maro Brixianus on p. [8].
"Poliphilvs Poliae s.p.d.": p. [10].
"Li errori del libro" on p. [467].
Woodcuts: illustrations and initials. Woodcuts on leaves [10b] and [21a] signed: b (sometimes attributed to Benedetto Bordone).
39 lines. Catchwords.
For reset sheets and variant copies, see Neil Harris in Gutenberg Jahrbuch (2006), pp.245-75, see also C. Bühler in Festschrift für Claus Nissen, Wiesbaden, 1973, pp. 36-42. (ISTC).
P. Scapecchi, in Accademie e biblioteche d'Italia 51 (1983) pp.286-98 and 53 (1985) pp.68-73, argues that Columna is the dedicatee, and that the author is Fra Eliseo da Treviso. For further notes and references on the authorship, see CIBN (ISTC).
PML copy leaf dimensions: 31.5 x 21.2 cm., slightly trimmed. PML copy partially on large paper (quires [pi] and a-z); part II (quires A-F) on regular-sized paper, but bound with part I at an early date (see notes by Neil Harris in dept. file).
PML copy with original cancellandum (leaf a2.7), as described by Curt Bühler as variant b, but is actually the first setting.
Binding
Modern conservation binding, in alum-tawed goatskin over boards (32.5 x 22 cm.), sewn on 4 supports, possibly by Deborah Evetts. Modern plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; plain endbands. Previously bound in blue morocco with yellow edges (see descriptions in Sunderland and Ives sales and Bennett catalogue); former fly leaf now in dept. file.
Variant title
Title on p. [9]: Poliphili hypnerotomachia
Inscriptions/Markings
Hand decoration: Rubrication not required. Annotations: 16th-century Italian marginal notations, bleached.
Provenance
Charles Spencer (1675-1722), 3rd Earl of Sunderland, shelf mark: B 2: 38 (front pastedown, preserved from former binding), through inheritance to: John Winston Spencer-Churchill (1822-1883), 7th Duke of Marlborough; Bibliotheca Sunderlandia sale, Puttick & Simpson, part II, 17 April 1882, lot 3302; Brayton Ives, monogram booklabel, no. 801 (front pastedown, preserved from former binding); his sale, New York, 5 March 1891, lot 801 for $430.50 to Irwin; Theodore Irwin (1827-1902); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Irwin collection, 1900.
Classification
Catalog link
Century
Department