Hypnerotomachia Poliphili : vbi hvmana omnia non nisisomnivm [sic] esse docet atqve obiter plvrima scitv sane qvam digna commemorat.

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Accession number: 
PML 373
Author: 
Colonna, Francesco, -1527.
Published: 
Venetiis : in aedibus Aldi Manutii [for Leonardus Crassus], Mense decembri .M.ID. [December 1499].
Description: 
[468] p. : 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: 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.

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: No marginal notations in text.

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: 
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