Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

Each folio of the HP carries text and sometimes woodcut illustrations on both sides. The book's 234 folios contain 172 woodcuts and the full text of Poliphilo's dream narrative, with some of the most important annotations appearing on versos facing woodcuts on the following recto.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

Folio-level analysis is the foundation of Russell's annotation study. He documents marginal notes by folio position (e.g., b6v, h1r), enabling precise comparison of how different readers engaged with the same passages across different copies of the HP.

Key Passages / Evidence

• <!-- Page 21 --> excluding 'la insolentia Aegyptica' and the 'dignificato Mausoleo' (folio b iii verso). 22 - E.g. Poetics, xxiv 15-17 and xxv 27 ('the marvellous causes pleasure'). 23 - The... [Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Bury_John_Chapter_III_of_the_Hypnerotomachia]
• <!-- Page 198 --> The flrifc of Loue fwoord, a place dedicated tothehappie, without anie ftub or tree, but the fielde wasasaplainecoequatemedoweof fweete hearbes and pleafaunt flowers, of all forts... [HP (Da Capo edition)]
• <!-- Page 12 --> Figure 13. Idea of the ruined state of the Mausoleum in the fifteenth century. Figure 14. Top, well-head in the temple of Venus, Hypnerotomachia, folio Oi verso; bottom, copy of... [Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Bury_John_Chapter_III_of_the_Hypnerotomachia]

Source Documents

HP (Da Capo edition); Russell 2014 (PhD thesis); Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Bury_John_Chapter_III_of_the_Hypnerotomachia; Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Curran_Brian_A_The_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili; Word_Image_2015_apr_03_vol_31_iss_2_Farrington_Lynne_Though_I_could_lead_a_quiet