Manuscripts of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
The 1499 Hypnerotomachia Poliphili survives in approximately 200 copies worldwide. Russell's PhD thesis (2014) studied six annotated copies in detail, identifying eleven distinct annotator hands. This section presents those copies with their annotation profiles, hand attributions, and links to the project's marginalia and concordance data.
Each copy page shows the annotator hands identified by Russell, the number of dissertation references attributed to that copy, and any matched images. Where matching confidence is low, that status is marked explicitly.
Annotated Copies Studied by Russell (2014)
Buffalo RBR HIGH
The most densely annotated copy in Russell's study. Five interleaved hands (A-E). Hands A-B possibly Jesuit, St. Omer. Hand E is an alchemist following pseudo-Geber's sulphur and Sol/Luna framework.
INCUN A.5.13 HIGH
Annotated by Benedetto Giovio. Natural-historical reading treating the HP as a Plinian reference compendium. Extractive annotation mode (inventio).
Inc.Stam.Chig.II.610 HIGH
Annotated by Fabio Chigi (Pope Alexander VII). Focus on acutezze (verbal wit). Chigi later commissioned Bernini's elephant-obelisk sculpture (1667) drawing on the HP's woodcut.
Modena (Panini) HIGH
Also annotated by Benedetto Giovio. Comparison with Cambridge copy annotations reveals consistent bibliographic and natural-historical interests. First studied by Stichel (1994).
O.III.38 HIGH
478-image digital facsimile with explicit folio-number filenames. Anonymous annotations. Basis for the project's most reliable concordance data (HIGH confidence matches).
C.60.o.12 MEDIUM
1545 second Aldine edition. Two hands: Ben Jonson (Hand A) and an anonymous alchemist (Hand B). Purchased by Thomas Bourne in 1641. Photo-to-folio offset of 13 verified by visual inspection (photos 001-013 are front matter). BL matches now MEDIUM confidence with 27 pages visually verified.