Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

The HP's pyramid is described with precise geometric proportions including dimensions, materials, and ascending stairways. An obelisk surmounts the structure, combining Egyptian and classical motifs in a way characteristic of Renaissance pseudo-archaeology.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

The pyramid passage is one of the HP's most celebrated architectural set pieces. It anticipates the elephant-obelisk combination that later influenced Bernini. The alchemical annotators read the pyramid as encoding stages of material refinement.

Key Passages / Evidence

• ... and Meta Romuli, detail of the fresco by Giulio Romano, Adlocutio di Costantino in the Sala di Costantino in the Vatican, c. 1521. and the so-called Meta Ramuli, the latter being finally... [Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Temple_N_The_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili_as_a_p]
• ... all of which, were presumably available to him). '47 When Poliphilo describes the precision with which the exterior masonry, consisting of squared blocks of 'pure, white Parian marble,' has... [Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Curran_Brian_A_The_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili]
• ... (see figure 12), which were apparently inspired by a medieval belief that the Vatican obelisk rested on a buried group of bronze lions. 137 Finally, we must consider the most imposing and... [Word_Image_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Curran_Brian_A_The_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili]

Source Documents

Avesani et al. (Colonna studies); HP primary text; Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution); O'Neill (Durham thesis); Priki (text-image boundary); 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_1998_jan_vol_14_iss_1_2_Temple_N_The_Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili_as_a_p