Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

The 1499 HP colophon identifies the printer (Aldus Manutius), place (Venice), and date (December 1499) but does not name the author. This omission leaves the authorship question dependent on internal evidence like the acrostic.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

The colophon is one of the few paratextual elements providing external evidence about the HP's production. Painter (1963) and Farrington (2015) use the colophon to situate the HP within the production history of the Aldine press.

Key Passages / Evidence

• <!-- Page 224 --> Siena O.III.38 The Siena copy is a perfect copy of the 1499 edition. There is no comment about the date on the colophon. It bears four hands, as distinguished by Fumagalli,... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]
• ... in books does not necessary consist in reading them’.2 Later annotators, such as ‘William Bird’ in the Buffalo copy (Chapter 7), make reference to Thomas Frognall Dibdin’s Bibliographical... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]
• ... of this present study. The line extensions do however take on a greater significance in light of one of Fumagalli’s secondary considerations. Fumagalli remarks, in a concern which has... [Russell 2014 (PhD thesis)]

Source Documents

Gollnick (Apuleius dreamworld); Russell 2014 (PhD thesis); Word_Image_2015_apr_03_vol_31_iss_2_Pumroy_Eric_L_Bryn_Mawr_College_s_1499_editi