Everywhere else in this dream you are lost, and that is the design: Hunt argues that
not being able to place yourself is the first garden experience the book stages,
which is why there is no map anywhere in this world. Cythera is the exception, and the
book makes it one: Poliphilo describes the whole topography of the island
before he lands, and only then explores it. Here, and only here, everything
falls into place.
Twenty divisions, by the construction the book itself gives (our translation p. 294).
Three concentric claustri, each a third of the radius; the river roofed with a
pergola of citrus; six terraces of seven steps; the theatre at the centre.
After A. Segre and J. D. Hunt — see GARDENS.md §5–6.
HYPNEROTOMACHIA
Gallery — the sources behind the world
Renaissance and early-modern exemplars for everything we build, beside the 1499 woodcuts of the Hypnerotomachia itself. Click any plate to enlarge it and read its provenance.
Guided Tours
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili walked stop by stop, with the scholarship beside it. Each stop teleports you to that place in the dream and surfaces what the sources say — under nine commentary lenses you can turn on and off.
The scenes of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venice, 1499) as one continuous world — the dark wood, the great portal, the court of Queen Eleuterylida, the three doors, the triumphs, the fountain of Venus, and the shore to Cythera.
Size22 cmThings0Metal♄ Lead
Single-stick — W A S D rolls the way you look · Controls in the bar above for the rest
The work is finished
The Chemical Wedding
☉ ☽
“The product of the chemical wedding: union of Sol and Luna, producing a
being that reconciles masculine and feminine. Hand E identifies hermaphroditic
imagery on h1r.”
Sol, the king of metals · Luna, the queen ·
hp.db, after Russell 2014, pp. 189–190