Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Fabio Chigi (1599-1667), who became Pope Alexander VII in 1655, annotated his copy of the HP (Vatican Chig.II.610) with particular attention to acutezze — instances of verbal cleverness and rhetorical ingenuity. His reading was aesthetic rather than alchemical or encyclopedic. Chigi later commissioned Bernini's elephant-obelisk sculpture in Piazza della Minerva (1667), which drew on the HP's famous woodcut.