Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

Poliphilo travels to Cythera, Venus's sacred island, where he encounters an elaborate circular garden with concentric rings of planting and is united with Polia at Venus's temple. Cythera is the narrative and symbolic destination of the entire journey.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

Segre (1998) provides the first critical analysis of Cythera's garden design, tracing its mythological associations and arguing it anticipates sixteenth-century botanical garden layouts. Fabiani Giannetto (2015) connects Cythera to the Sacro Bosco at Bomarzo.

Key Passages / Evidence

• <!-- Page 180 --> that walkers would have experienced, besides the visual symbols inscribed, for instance, in the calli and campi of Venice experienced by walkers.5 Garden historians of Poliphilo... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]
• <!-- Page 204 --> topiara … gaudiosamente ad uno limpidissimo et sacrato fonte di una larga scatebra manante pervenissimo’ (We traversed the holy island through the paths and ways marked out by... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]
• ... his conceptualisation and subsequent acquisition of knowledge is through philosophic reflection, and narrated to us through metaphor. Once obtained, there is a transition indicated by Logistica... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]

Source Documents

O'Neill (Durham thesis); The_Narrative_Function_of_Hieroglyphs_in; Untangling_the_knot_Garden_design_in_Francesco_Colonna_s_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphi; Walking_in_the_Boboli_Gardens_in_Florenc; Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Hunt_John_Dixon_Experiencing_gardens_in_the_H