Publisher info:
Exactly Five Hundred Years after its first publication by the great Venetian printing house of Aldus Manutius in 1499, Francesco Colonna's weird, erotic, allegorical tale, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was translated into English and reprinted in full, together with all of its 174 original -- and enchanting -- woodcut illustrations. It has been called the first stream-of-consciousness novel, and is one of the most important documents of Renaissance imagination and fantasy. The author (presumed to be Francesco Colonna, a friar of dubious reputation) was obsessed by architecture, landscape and costume -- it is not going too far to say sexually obsessed -- and its woodcuts are a primary source for Renaissance ideas on both buildings and gardens. The English translation was first published in a large format that exactly matched the original in size, design and typography. This new edition reproduces the first in everything but size -- it is about a third smaller and retains all the text and illustrations. Long prized by bibliophiles and generations of scholars, this classic book may now gain the wider audience its melancholy genius merits.
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