Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Marginalia, Scholarship & Reception

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The Three Doors

NARRATIVE h6v · p.125
The Three Doors
From the 1499 Aldine first edition (University of Seville copy, via Internet Archive)

Cave or grotto scene: figures before three inscribed doorways in a rocky mountainside. Inscriptions: THEODOXIA, COSMODOXIA, EROTOTROPHOS.

In the Narrative

The central allegory of the HP. Poliphilo must choose between three doors: Glory of God (THEODOXIA), Glory of the World (COSMODOXIA), and Nourisher of Love (EROTOTROPHOS). He chooses the third — the path of Eros. This scene is the HP's version of the Choice of Hercules.

Source: LLM_ASSISTED · HIGH