The
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was printed by
Aldus Manutius in
Venice in December 1499. The author of the book is
anonymous. However, an
acrostic formed by the first, elaborately decorated letter in each chapter in the original Italian reads "POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT", which means "Brother
Francesco Colonna has dearly loved Polia". Despite this clue, the book has also been attributed to
Leon Battista Alberti, and earlier, to
Lorenzo de' Medici. Manutius himself claimed that the author was a different Francesco Colonna, a wealthy
Roman governor. The identity of the
illustrator has at times been attributed to
Benedetto Montagna, and
Sandro Botticelli. The subject matter of the book lies within the tradition (or
genre) of the
Romance. It follows the conventions of
courtly love, which in 1499 continued to provide engaging thematic matter for the
Quattrocento aristocrats. The
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili also draws from
Renaissance humanism where arcane writings are a demonstration of
classical thought. The text of the book is written in a bizarre
Latinate
Italian. Without explanation, the text is full of words based on Latin and
Greek roots. The book, however, also includes words from the Italian language and illustrations which include
Arabic and
Hebrew words. Moreover, Colonna would invent new forms of language when those available to him were inaccurate. The book also contains some uses of
Egyptian hieroglyphs, but they are not authentic. Most of them have been drawn from a
late antique text of dubious origin called
Hieroglyphica. The
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, set in 1467, consists of a series of precious and elaborate scenes involving the title character, Poliphilo ("friend of many things" from the Greek words
poly- meaning "many" and
philos meaning "friend"). In these scenes, Poliphilo wanders a
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 text makes frequent references to classical geography and mythology, mostly by way of comparison. 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. Its roman typeface, cut by
Francesco Griffo, is a revised version of a type which Aldus had first used in 1496 for the
De Aetna of
Pietro Bembo. The type is thought to be one of the first examples of the roman typeface, and in incunabula, it is unique to the Aldine Press. The type was revived by the
Monotype Corporation in 1923 as "Poliphilus". In 1929,
Stanley Morison directed another revival of the earlier version of Griffo's type. It was called "
Bembo". The
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is illustrated with 168 exquisite
woodcuts showing the scenery, architectural settings, and some of the characters Poliphilo encounters in his dreams. They depict scenes from Poliphilo's adventures and the architectural features over which the author rhapsodizes, in a simultaneously stark and ornate
line art style. This integrates perfectly with the type, an example of typographic art. The illustrations are interesting because they shed light on the
Renaissance man's taste in the
æsthetic qualities of
Greek and
Roman antiquities. In the United States, a book on the life and works of Aldus Manutius by
Helen Barolini was set within pages that reproduce all the illustrations and many of the full pages from the original work, reconstructing the original layout. 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 nineteenth century English illustrators, such as
Aubrey Beardsley,
Walter Crane, and
Robert Anning Bell. ==Translations==