Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

rst is that the compositor made an error during the printing process. The order of lines was reversed by mistake. This slight mistake in copying is all too easy to make, as anyone who has done a palaeographical transcription can attest! This explanation may suffice, but it bears noting that the change in sentence order can strongly affect the poetic force of the sentence. In one case, this ‘poetic’ change happened in the process of making a more utilitarian change from the errata. On ...

223 Detail, (k3r) ‘cu(m) exq(ui)siti, & di voluptica textura i(n)nodulati. Altre torme(n)tuli tripharia i(n)seme diffusame(n)te le i(n)stabile. The reader applied the correction from the errata sheet, which is {errata: ch.3.f.i.l.i.fa co(n)grumati haueano, cum exquisiti torme(n)tuli tripharia insieme, & di uoluptica textura inodulati. Altre diffusamente instabile} It appears that the reader, in the process of mechanistically applying the errata, with his attention drawn to ...