Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

Russell identified 11 distinct annotator hands across 6 copies of the HP. The BL copy bears two hands (Ben Jonson and an anonymous alchemist), while the Buffalo copy has five interleaved hands (A-E), demonstrating sustained multi-reader engagement.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

Distinguishing hands involves analyzing ink color, language, ductus, content focus, and stratigraphic relationships. Russell's hand identification methodology draws on paleographic and codicological methods adapted for printed book annotation studies.

Key Passages / Evidence

• ... for Sale 7911/Lot 4, ‘The Arcana Collection: Exceptional Illuminated Manuscripts and Incunabula’, 7 July 2010. 7 ‘Sir William Stirling-Maxwell’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]
• ... own ingegno. The HP served as both a resource for composition, and a means of sharpening one’s capacity to apply that information. The copy of the 1545 Sons of Aldus edition at shelfmark... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]
• ... circle of annotators. Sydney Z/LQ2/C Sydney is an imperfect copy lacking the leaves from F onward in Book II. These were most likely torn out in the process of removing the colophon... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]

Source Documents

Georg_Leidinger_Albrecht_Dürer_und_die_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili_Oldenbourg_Wiss; HP (Da Capo edition); HP primary text; Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)