Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Francesco Colonna (d. 1527) is the presumed author of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, identified through the acrostic formed by the chapter initials: POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT. A Dominican friar in Venice, Colonna's attribution has been canonical since Casella and Pozzi's 1959 study, though contested by scholars proposing alternative candidates including a Roman nobleman of the same name (Calvesi 1996) and Leon Battista Alberti (Lefaivre 1997).