Friday Books: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili · 723 words posted 10/08/2004 05:37 PM
Not long ago I had a dream. In my dream, I asked my wife her nickname and I saw the plaque to the left. In a dream tongue, I knew the word was pronounced “i-le-ya-la.” My wife explained this literally means “one pin drop,” as in “the sound of one pin dropping.” I took this to mean that she was graceful and subtle.
Dreams tend to share a set of common traits: at once vague and overly specific, their revelatory nature is often of interest only to the dreamer. Some dreams, however, endure and enter the popular culture. Perhaps the most famous literary dream is Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, fueled by a stomach ache and two grains of opium.
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ‘twould win me…
Richer, older, more obscure, and in every sense more dazzling than Kubla Khan, Francesco’s Colonna “Hypnerotomachia Poliphili” tells the story of a dreamer and his lost love. Published in 1499, the “Hypnerotomachia Poliphili” translates to “The Strife of Love in a Dream.” Here’s part of a plot synopsis from Nicolas Barker’s introduction to the Octavo edition:
Poliphilo [the protagonist] wanders into a magic landscape inhabited by nymphs and dragons, and liberally endowed with monuments, buildings, sculpture, and inscriptions. All this he explores, pondering the purpose and meaning of what he sees and those he meets. The country is ruled over by a queen who feasts him royally…
Finally he meets Polia again, whom he had first set out to seek, and they travel on together in Cupid’s boat, rowed by singing nymphs, till they reach Cythera, the island of Venus.
Here Polia takes up her story in the second part. She had taken refuge in a temple; approached by her lover, she turns him away, only for him to collapse, apparently lifeless, at her feet. Thinking him dead, she flees, only to be confronted by the awful punishments inflicted by Cupid on those who defy him. Instructed by a wise old woman, she returns to the temple and brings Poliphilo back to life. Evicted by the high priestess for embracing, they appeal to Venus. Poliphilo recites his story again, Polia plaits him a wreath of flowers, and again they embrace. Polia blushes—and disappears in the first light of dawn. “This was the point, o gentle readers, at which, alas, I awoke.” It has been a dream, and Poliphilo is left with his dreamlike memories, wishing that the sun had not risen to bring them to an end.
As befits a dream, scholars interpret “The Strife of Love” according to their own interests. Architects claim it as a major architectural masterpiece; feminists regard the work as an early assertion of female sexuality; and literary scholars see in its neologisms a precursor to James Joyce. The book’s abundant illustrations set it apart from contemporary picaresques: elephants and obelisks, nymphs and satyrs, queens and lovers; all grace its pages.
You can find “The Strife of Love” in several editions. Octavo Press has scanned an early edition of the book and sells it on CD-ROM. The excellent commentary by Nicolas Barker (cited above) and an architectural essay by Ian White easily justify the price of the CD. You can enlarge the images to several times their original size without any loss of clarity—close enough to see the ink bleed. (The images of Polia and the Horse of Misfortune on this page were taken from the Octavo edition). Octavo also includes images of an acrostic buried throughout the book’s chapters that provided an early clue to its authorship. Unfortunately, Octavo does not include an English translation with the original text. Even without the translation, this is my favorite edition.
Thames and Hudson also publishes an excellent English translation by Joscelyn Godwin. Edward Tufte has reviewed this edition favorably and apparently plans to make “The Strife of Love” the subject of a chapter in his next book.
Finally, MIT has made the entire text, with excellent supporting notes, available online for free. While the images are much lower resolution than those in the Octavo edition, MIT’s free site is a great introduction to “The Strife of Love.”
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