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: ill, initials. Woodcuts on leaves [10b] and [21a] signed: b.
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., 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.
Title on p. [9]: Poliphili hypnerotomachia
Hand decoration: Rubrication not required. Annotations: No marginal notations in text.