Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Marginalia, Scholarship & Reception

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Hieroglyphic Frieze

HIEROGLYPHIC b8r · p.31
Hieroglyphic Frieze
From the 1499 Aldine first edition (University of Seville copy, via Internet Archive)

Two-register frieze with emblematic figures: chariots, winged beings, dolphins, anchors, vessels. Below: Latin majuscule inscription.

In the Narrative

The first of the HP's pseudo-hieroglyphic friezes — Colonna's invented 'Egyptian' symbolic language. The emblems encode a message that combines Roman imperial imagery with invented symbolic grammar.

Source: LLM_ASSISTED · HIGH