Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

Poliphilo encounters colossal statues that evoke the ancient Wonders of the World. These passages combine the awe of gigantism with precise architectural measurement, demonstrating the HP's characteristic fusion of the marvelous and the rational.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

The colossal figures contribute to the HP's cultivation of meraviglia (wonder) as an aesthetic and philosophical response. The precise measurements given for colossal structures demonstrate the HP's investment in architectural rationality even at extreme scales.

Key Passages / Evidence

• ... we are obliged to coin new ones.” So too in the Hypnerotomachia: “It is obvious that in our times the vernacular, proper, and native terms of the art of building have disap- peared along with... [Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution)]
• ... had such conceptions until the twentieth century (save briefly, around the time of the French Revolution, when architects in France imagined buildings in the shape of animals).'? To look to... [Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution)]
• <!-- Page 10 --> structure through which Poliphilo will access the other spaces in his dream. In the rectangular enclosed area in front of the pyramid there are three significant monuments that... [The_Narrative_Function_of_Hieroglyphs_in]

Source Documents

Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution); O'Neill (Durham thesis); Teaching_Eros_The_Rhetoric_of_Love_in_th; The_Narrative_Function_of_Hieroglyphs_in; Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Curran_Brian_A_The_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili; Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Griggs_Tamara_Promoting_the_past_The_Hypnerot