Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Marginalia, Scholarship & Reception

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L. E. Semler Unreviewed (LLM_ASSISTED)

L. E. Semler's 2006 study reframes Robert Dallington's 1592 English adaptation of the HP as deliberate cultural appropriation rather than failed translation. Semler shows that Dallington's Hypnerotomachia was designed to serve Protestant antiquarian interests in Elizabethan England, adapting the HP's Catholic and Italian content for a specifically English political and religious context.

Works in Archive

Robert Dallington's Hypnerotomachia and the Protestant Antiquity of Elizabethan England

Studies in Philology 103:2 (2006) [book] Reception

Semler examines how the 1592 English translation of the HP was reframed within the context of Elizabethan Protestant antiquarianism, arguing that the translator Robert Dallington adapted the Catholic and pagan elements of Colonna's text to serve a distinctly Protestant vision of classical learning. The article reveals how the HP's reception in England was shaped by religious politics and nationalist concerns about the proper use of antiquity. Semler demonstrates that translation is always an act of cultural reinterpretation.

Other Known Works

Robert Dallington's Hypnerotomachia and the Protestant Antiquity of Elizabethan England

Studies in Philology 103:2 (2006) [article]

Summary not yet available.

Review Status / Provenance

Draft Source: LLM_ASSISTED