Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

Two annotators in Russell's study — Hand B in the BL copy and Hand E in the Buffalo copy — independently read the HP as concealing alchemical formulae beneath its love narrative. Their annotations map narrative elements to alchemical processes and substances.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

The alchemical reading tradition dates to Beroalde de Verville's 1600 French edition. Russell documents how two later annotators followed different alchemical schools (d'Espagnet vs pseudo-Geber), producing divergent but internally consistent readings of the same passages.

Key Passages / Evidence

• ... ascent from the mundane to the heavenly, masque is itself a genre steeped in alchemical themes. As it turns out, the contrast could not be sharper. Jonson leaves no alchemical annotation of... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]
• ... indicate that this alchemist approached the text from within the school of pseudo-Geber. This identification of the framework within which this particular alchemist interpreted the HP is... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]
• <!-- Page 154 --> Seventeenth-Century Alchemical Theory Prior to discussing B’s notes, it will be necessary to make some prefatory remarks in order to delineate, in the broadest terms, the... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]

Source Documents

Gollnick (Apuleius dreamworld); Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)