The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is the most majestic, and most cryptic, illustrated book of the European Renaissance. Its labrynthine text, written in a hybrid language of Latin and Italian, leads the reader through an erotic dreamscape of architectural ruins, gardens, and classical imagery. Speculation persists as to its interpretation and authorship. Read as an acrostic, the opening ornamental letters of the book’s chapters spell out: “Poliam Frater Franciscvs Colvmna Peramavit” (Brother Francesco Colonna loved Polia immensely). The A on this page is the A in “Francesco”—a Dominican friar long thought to have thus revealed himself as creator of the Hypnerotomachia.
Francesco Colonna (1433–1527), Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife of Love in a Dream by the Lover of Polia), Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1499. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan with the library of Theodore Irwin, 1900. PML 373.