Product Description

Exactly 500 years after its first publication, by the great Venetian publishing house of Aldus Manutius, Francesco Colonna's weird, erotic, allegorical antiquarian tale, "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili", was translated into English and reprinted in full, together with all of its 174 original woodcut illustrations. It has been called the first "stream of consciousness" novel and was one of the most important documents of Renaissance imagination and fantasy. The author - presumed to be a friar of dubious reputation - was obsessed by architecture, landscape and costume (it is not going to far to say sexually obsessed) and its woodcuts are a primary source for Renaissance ideas on both buildings and plants. This translation was first published in 1999 in a facsimile format. This new edition reproduces everything about one third smaller, retaining all the text and illustrations, and is easy to handle and read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #671383 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-06
• Original language: Latin
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 476 pages

Review
'Joscelyn Godwin, whose translation is a masterpiece of clarity and scholarship, has achieved something truly remarkable with this beautiful edition. It is unquestionably one of the publishing events not just of the year but of the century' - Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Daily Telegraph 'A mammoth task of inestimable value, carried out with learning, elegance and wit' - International Herald Tribune 'An extraordinary and exceptional book' - The Architects' Journal 'Adds a fresh dimension to our understanding of the Renaissance' - The Times 'Joscelyn Godwin has proven that a desiccated rose can not only live again, but may also, with the help of fantasy, grow vivid as never before' - The New York Review of Books 'Should undoubtedly find a place in every serious English-speaking academic library' - The Art Book

About the Author
Joscelyn Godwin is Professor of Music at Colgate University, New York, and has made a considerable contribution to intellectual history through his books on the 17th-century occult philosophers Robert Fludd and Athansius Kircher, on the history of Theosophy, on the spiritual dimension of music and most recently The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance.

Customer Reviews

A delightful translation of an amazing work.
Joscelyn Godwin's translation has made the entire text of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili readily available to an Anglophone readership for the first time in the book's 501-year history, bringing to light what was formerly the preserve of a few savants deeply knowledgable in Renaissance Italian language and culture. What has always been accessible, meanwhile, namely the book's singularly elegant design, which combined numerous innovations in the fields of typography, page layout and illustration, have been painstakingly emulated by Thames and Hudson, and their printers, for this edition. One suspects that this book has more often been admired as an artefact and consummate relic of its time, than enjoyed as a work of literature, but Godwin's translation, which deliberately smooths many of the original text's convolutions, offers many delights, and immerses us in Poliphilo's fervent dream. The body of the book relates the hero's progress through his dreamworld, a paradise strewn with magnificent buildings and colossal ruins whose architecture is described in loving, even fetishistic detail; and populated for the most part by comely nymphs wearing diaphanous gowns. On the simplest level, this is escapist fantasy, embodying the author's sensual longings, and beyond that are, I presume, levels of allegorical meaning not obvious to a casual reader such as myself. By no means does one need, however, to understand every sign and symbol, in order to derive great pleasure from reading this amazing work.

Essential Reading
Immense thanks to Thames & Hudson for reproducing this work in full - the first time it has been available in translation for several centuries, complete with ravishing prints. I first discovered this work because Giorgione was said to have been captivated and greatly influence by it; but it was just as likely to have had a major impact elsewhere. Read it if you want to be stunned. Well worth the money.