Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

The HP lacks a printed commentary or apparatus in either of its Aldine editions (1499, 1545). The commentary tradition is instead supplied by readers' marginalia, which Russell argues collectively constitute an informal apparatus built by successive generations of annotators.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

The absence of a printed apparatus distinguishes the HP from most classical texts of the period. Pozzi and Ciapponi's 1964 critical edition provides the first modern scholarly apparatus, including textual notes and a glossary of the HP's unusual vocabulary.

Key Passages / Evidence

• <!-- Page 9 --> apart from the few that needed to be replaced because of loss or damage. He could simply set the new edition from the old one. Comparison of the 1499 and 1545 editions of... [Word_Image_2015_apr_03_vol_31_iss_2_Farrington_Lynne_Though_I_could_lead_a_quiet]
• <!-- Page 7 --> CROSSING THE TEXT/IMAGE BOUNDARY 343 body of the book is an imitation of the Jean Martin edition following the exact opposite principle whereby the image atempts to elucidate... [Priki (text-image boundary)]
• ... the island of Cytherea’s topography is shown in a schematic circular inscribed diagram providing a rather perplexing hint of the island’s description, for which one needs to turn to the... [Priki (text-image boundary)]

Source Documents

Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution); Priki (text-image boundary); Priki 2009 (reception); Russell 2014 (PhD thesis); The_Modern_Language_Review_1955_jan_vol_50_iss_1_Francon_Marcel_Francesco_Colonn; Trippe 2002 (text-image); Word_Image_2015_apr_03_vol_31_iss_2_Farrington_Lynne_Though_I_could_lead_a_quiet