Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

At the portal of Thelemia, Poliphilo chooses among three doors representing the vita voluptuosa, vita activa, and vita contemplativa. His choice of the middle path reflects the HP's humanist ethics of balance between pleasure and contemplation.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

Rabelais adopted the name 'Theleme' for his utopian abbey in Gargantua (1534), almost certainly drawing on the HP. The three-gate motif connects the HP to the Choice of Hercules tradition in Renaissance moral philosophy.

Key Passages / Evidence

• ... inside before being chased into the pitch-black subterranean depths of the building by a dragon. Poliphilo here prayers to grant his escape from the ‘entrails of the building’ before seeing a... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]
• ... ekphrasis, and before the philosophic narrative that characterises the court and gardens of Eleuterylida. This philosophic narrative is most apparent in the sequence of the two gardens, in... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]
• ... sixe young Women. The first was called Merimnasia, the second, Epitide, another, Ergasilea, the fourth, Anectea, the fift was named Statia, the last was called Olistea. The situation and... [HP primary text]

Source Documents

Avesani et al. (Colonna studies); Blunt 1937 (HP in French art); HP primary text; Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution); O'Neill (Durham thesis); Priki 2009 (reception)