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Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Venice: Aldus Manutius for Leonardus Crassus, December 1499.
細節
COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Venice: Aldus Manutius for Leonardus Crassus, December 1499.
First edition of the most celebrated illustrated printed book of the Italian renaissance. Its influence has been felt over the centuries in art, literature, and architecture to the present day. It blends chivalric romance, Quest legend, and highly sophisticated imagination and erudition in its tale of Polifilo in search of his lost love, Polia. His journey takes him through a fantastic dream-world of pyramids and obelisks, classical gardens, ruined temples and bacchanalian festivals, before finding her and gaining ultimate enlightenment at the temple of Venus. Even its language is extraordinary, an ‘exotic Latinate vernacular, a language never spoken and never again attempted in Latin literature' (Davies), creating an unfamiliar universe of words coined from Latin and Greek, with unexpected linguistic formulations, and occasional appearances of Arabic, Hebrew and pseudo-Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The book epitomises the Aldine mastery of type, illustration, design and execution. The identity of the artist responsible for the renowned woodcuts has long been debated, but the Paduan miniaturist Benedetto Bordone, active primarily in Venice, is now widely accepted. HC 5501*; GW 7223; BMC V, 561; Renouard Alde 21.5; Essling 1198; Sander 2056; Schafer/von Arnim 107; Goff C-767; ISTC ic00767000.
Chancery folio (289 x 190mm). 233 leaves (of 234, F4 errata in facsimile). Roman, Greek and square Hebrew type, letters AM stamped in by hand as correction in line 5 of second title (a1r) as GW Anm. 2. 172 woodcuts attributed to the Paduan miniaturist Benedetto Bordon, of which 11 are full-page [the Priapus cut on m6 untouched], 39 woodcut initials form an acrostic spelling the name Franciscus Columna (first leaf discreetly rehinged with a few letters restored, minor repairs in about 8 leaves effecting a few letters, q8 just shaved at top, a little faint spotting, washed and pressed). Dark brown morocco tooled in gilt and blind by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, spine lettered in gilt, red edges. Provenance: a few old annotations (washed) – Clifford Rattey (1886-1970; bookplate; his collection dispersed by Maggs Bros) – W. Senn-Dürck, Basel-Riehen (1904-2001; booklabel); by descent.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Venice: Aldus Manutius for Leonardus Crassus, December 1499.
First edition of the most celebrated illustrated printed book of the Italian renaissance. Its influence has been felt over the centuries in art, literature, and architecture to the present day. It blends chivalric romance, Quest legend, and highly sophisticated imagination and erudition in its tale of Polifilo in search of his lost love, Polia. His journey takes him through a fantastic dream-world of pyramids and obelisks, classical gardens, ruined temples and bacchanalian festivals, before finding her and gaining ultimate enlightenment at the temple of Venus. Even its language is extraordinary, an ‘exotic Latinate vernacular, a language never spoken and never again attempted in Latin literature' (Davies), creating an unfamiliar universe of words coined from Latin and Greek, with unexpected linguistic formulations, and occasional appearances of Arabic, Hebrew and pseudo-Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The book epitomises the Aldine mastery of type, illustration, design and execution. The identity of the artist responsible for the renowned woodcuts has long been debated, but the Paduan miniaturist Benedetto Bordone, active primarily in Venice, is now widely accepted. HC 5501*; GW 7223; BMC V, 561; Renouard Alde 21.5; Essling 1198; Sander 2056; Schafer/von Arnim 107; Goff C-767; ISTC ic00767000.
Chancery folio (289 x 190mm). 233 leaves (of 234, F4 errata in facsimile). Roman, Greek and square Hebrew type, letters AM stamped in by hand as correction in line 5 of second title (a1r) as GW Anm. 2. 172 woodcuts attributed to the Paduan miniaturist Benedetto Bordon, of which 11 are full-page [the Priapus cut on m6 untouched], 39 woodcut initials form an acrostic spelling the name Franciscus Columna (first leaf discreetly rehinged with a few letters restored, minor repairs in about 8 leaves effecting a few letters, q8 just shaved at top, a little faint spotting, washed and pressed). Dark brown morocco tooled in gilt and blind by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, spine lettered in gilt, red edges. Provenance: a few old annotations (washed) – Clifford Rattey (1886-1970; bookplate; his collection dispersed by Maggs Bros) – W. Senn-Dürck, Basel-Riehen (1904-2001; booklabel); by descent.
榮譽呈獻
Sophie Meadows
Senior Specialist