Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia

The HP describes several triumphal gates decorated with reliefs and inscriptions. These function as thresholds between narrative zones and as occasions for sustained architectural ekphrasis. The woodcut illustrations of gates are among the HP's most architecturally detailed images.

Why It Matters in Scholarship

Stewering (2000) analyzes the relationship between the HP's triumphal gates and Alberti's De re aedificatoria. The gates demonstrate the HP's sophisticated knowledge of Roman triumphal architecture and its adaptation for narrative purposes.

Key Passages / Evidence

• ... side of the palace, where she sings of the origins of the realm of Queen Eleuterylida and, in the second part of the garden, describes a great obelisk representing --- <!-- Page 16 --> ... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]
• ... conscious of this method and were using the book to theorize that creative design is precisely this process of rethinking and recategorizing precedent works. Take the first recombinant... [Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution)]
• ... that thy determination is topcrfeuere refo- lutely in the amorous flames and loueof /W/*, I thinkc it conuenient, that for the recouerie thereof, thourepaireto the three Portes, which are the... [HP (Da Capo edition)]

Source Documents

Avesani et al. (Colonna studies); Gollnick (Apuleius dreamworld); HP (Da Capo edition); HP primary text; Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution); O'Neill (Durham thesis)