Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Francesco Colonna

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream by Francesco Colonna, translated by Joscelyn Godwin / ISBN 9780500511046 / 476-page hardcover, 6.25 x 9.25 inches, from Thames & Hudson / Discounted copies but like new *** "A wonderful translation of an extraordinary book.... Creates a whole other world." -- Edward R. Tufte One of the most famous books in the world, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, read by every Renaissance intellectual and referred to in studies of art and culture ever since, was first published in English by Thames & Hudson in 1999. It is a strange, pagan, pedantic, erotic, allegorical, mythological romance relating in highly stylized Italian the quest of Poliphilo for his beloved Polia. 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 174 woodcuts are a primary source for Renaissance ideas on both buildings and garden