Details
December 1499, printed for Leonardo Crasso
[COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)]. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, ubi humana omnia non nisi somnium esse docet atque obiter plurima scitu sanequam digna commemorat, in Italian. With Crasso's dedication to Guido, Duke of Urbino, poem by Giovanni Battista Scita addressed to Crasso, and two epigrams by Andrea Maro of Brescia, all in Latin; prose and verse synopses of the romance, in Italian. Super-chancery 2° (300 x 200mm). Same collation as given for the Doheny copy (Christie's 22-x-87 lot 108). 234 leaves. Roman types 115mm (evolved from 2:114; text) and 10:82 (title, errata, and elsewhere), greek 2:114 (occasional words) and 3:84 (errata), square hebrew type (4 lines on b8), letters AM stamped in by hand to correct line 5 of the second title on a1r (as GW Anm. 2). 39 lines. 172 WOODCUTS ATTRIBUTED TO BENEDETTO BORDON (including 11 full-page illustrations); 39 woodcut initials (printed from 17 blocks) form an acrostic incorporating the author's name, Franciscus Columna. (A couple of tiny wormholes at beginning and end, minor crease in errata-leaf, a few leaves slightly stained, mostly marginal.)
BINDING: brown morocco, panelled in gilt and blind, edges gilt, by Zaehnsdorf (spine somewhat faded). PROVENANCE: two early inscriptions on first title washed out; Earl of Hopetoun (bkplt.)
FIRST EDITION of this celebrated allegorical love story, largely determined by a complicated theory of art and aesthetics and much influenced by the architectural works of Vitruvius and Alberti. Polifilo is led on a journey throught a fantastic archaeological dream-world of pyramids and obelisks, palaces, ruined temples and crumbling altars, bacchanalian festivals, amongst which Polia is revealed as a nymph who leads her lover to ultimate enlightenment beside the fountain of Venus. The probable author was a Dominican friar of San Zanipolo in Venice, who caused much scandal throughout his life. The woodcuts on a6v and c1r are signed with the initial b, which has set off much speculation in the vast literature on this most famous of all Italian Renaissance illustrated books. "The case of Benedetto Bordon is particularly interesting, in part because his name has been repeatedly associated with the woodcuts of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife in the Dream of Poliphilus), the curious archaeological romance printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1499. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is the most beautiful illustrated book printed in Italy in the Quattrocento. Its dozens of woodcuts harmonise perfectly with the lay-out of the text, creating page after page of arresting design. Despite recent arguments that the text was written in Rome rather than Venice, it is still likely that the overall lay-out would have needed supervision in Venice by an experienced artist working with Aldus, whose press did not specialise in illustrated books. Similarities between the miniatures attributable to Bordon, such as those in the 1494 Lucian in Vienna, and many of the woodcuts support the hypothesis that Bordon was indeed the supervising artist" (Lilian Armstrong, "The Hand-Illumination of Printed Books in Italy 1465-1515" in: The Painted Page 1994, p. 45). HC *5501; GW 7223; BMC V, 561; Goff C-767; IGI 3062; Essling 1198; Lowry p. 119-22; Murphy 28; Sansoviniana 36; Laurenziana 36; Scapecchi 24; In Praise p. 48; R 21:5
[COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)]. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, ubi humana omnia non nisi somnium esse docet atque obiter plurima scitu sanequam digna commemorat, in Italian. With Crasso's dedication to Guido, Duke of Urbino, poem by Giovanni Battista Scita addressed to Crasso, and two epigrams by Andrea Maro of Brescia, all in Latin; prose and verse synopses of the romance, in Italian. Super-chancery 2° (300 x 200mm). Same collation as given for the Doheny copy (Christie's 22-x-87 lot 108). 234 leaves. Roman types 115mm (evolved from 2:114; text) and 10:82 (title, errata, and elsewhere), greek 2:114 (occasional words) and 3:84 (errata), square hebrew type (4 lines on b8), letters AM stamped in by hand to correct line 5 of the second title on a1r (as GW Anm. 2). 39 lines. 172 WOODCUTS ATTRIBUTED TO BENEDETTO BORDON (including 11 full-page illustrations); 39 woodcut initials (printed from 17 blocks) form an acrostic incorporating the author's name, Franciscus Columna. (A couple of tiny wormholes at beginning and end, minor crease in errata-leaf, a few leaves slightly stained, mostly marginal.)
BINDING: brown morocco, panelled in gilt and blind, edges gilt, by Zaehnsdorf (spine somewhat faded). PROVENANCE: two early inscriptions on first title washed out; Earl of Hopetoun (bkplt.)
FIRST EDITION of this celebrated allegorical love story, largely determined by a complicated theory of art and aesthetics and much influenced by the architectural works of Vitruvius and Alberti. Polifilo is led on a journey throught a fantastic archaeological dream-world of pyramids and obelisks, palaces, ruined temples and crumbling altars, bacchanalian festivals, amongst which Polia is revealed as a nymph who leads her lover to ultimate enlightenment beside the fountain of Venus. The probable author was a Dominican friar of San Zanipolo in Venice, who caused much scandal throughout his life. The woodcuts on a6v and c1r are signed with the initial b, which has set off much speculation in the vast literature on this most famous of all Italian Renaissance illustrated books. "The case of Benedetto Bordon is particularly interesting, in part because his name has been repeatedly associated with the woodcuts of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife in the Dream of Poliphilus), the curious archaeological romance printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1499. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is the most beautiful illustrated book printed in Italy in the Quattrocento. Its dozens of woodcuts harmonise perfectly with the lay-out of the text, creating page after page of arresting design. Despite recent arguments that the text was written in Rome rather than Venice, it is still likely that the overall lay-out would have needed supervision in Venice by an experienced artist working with Aldus, whose press did not specialise in illustrated books. Similarities between the miniatures attributable to Bordon, such as those in the 1494 Lucian in Vienna, and many of the woodcuts support the hypothesis that Bordon was indeed the supervising artist" (Lilian Armstrong, "The Hand-Illumination of Printed Books in Italy 1465-1515" in: The Painted Page 1994, p. 45). HC *5501; GW 7223; BMC V, 561; Goff C-767; IGI 3062; Essling 1198; Lowry p. 119-22; Murphy 28; Sansoviniana 36; Laurenziana 36; Scapecchi 24; In Praise p. 48; R 21:5