Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

Pope Alexander VII annotated his HP copy with particular attention to acutezze — instances of verbal cleverness, wordplay, and rhetorical ingenuity. His reading of the HP was aesthetic rather than alchemical or encyclopedic, focused on the text's wit.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

Russell contextualizes Chigi's annotations within the seventeenth-century Italian tradition of collecting examples of wit, codified in works like Tesauro's Il cannocchiale aristotelico (1663) and Pellegrini's Delle Acutezze (1639).

Key Passages / Evidence

• <!-- Page 198 --> The flrifc of Loue fwoord, a place dedicated tothehappie, without anie ftub or tree, but the fielde wasasaplainecoequatemedoweof fweete hearbes and pleafaunt flowers, of all forts... [HP (Da Capo edition)]
• <!-- Page 134 --> The alament of the claustering walles, were couered ouer with Plates of beaten Golde, with a grauing agreeable to the pretiousnes of the metall. And in the coæquated and... [HP primary text]
• <!-- Page 115 --> uct , and bowlftered with fomc foft fiuffe or feathers eafie to fit vpon,thc Veluct brought downe to the frame ofthe Settles or Benches , and fattened to. the fame with tarch... [HP (Da Capo edition)]

Source Documents

HP (Da Capo edition); HP primary text