Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

Beroalde de Verville's 1600 French edition included a 'tableau steganographique' mapping narrative elements to alchemical processes. This edition inaugurated the tradition of reading the HP as alchemical allegory that Russell documents in the BL and Buffalo annotators.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

Beroalde's edition is the earliest published alchemical interpretation of the HP. Russell (2014, pp. 147-153) traces how Beroalde's framework influenced all subsequent alchemical readings, including those of the anonymous BL and Buffalo annotators.

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]
• ... 2014). 43 – The publisher information comes from the cataloguing records for the three variants in the online English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). The ESTC citation numbers are, in order,... [Word_Image_2015_apr_03_vol_31_iss_2_Farrington_Lynne_Though_I_could_lead_a_quiet]
• ... in more quantity and are richer in content. he irst French edition was published in 1546 by Jean Martin at the press of Jacques Kerver in Paris and was reprinted twice. he same translation,... [Priki (text-image boundary)]

Source Documents

Blunt 1937 (HP in French art); Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution); Praz 1947 (foreign imitators); 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_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Hunt_John_Dixon_Experiencing_gardens_in_the_H; Word_Image_2015_apr_03_vol_31_iss_2_Farrington_Lynne_Though_I_could_lead_a_quiet