Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream (Paperback) - Softcover

Colonna, Francesco

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1849028826 ISBN 13: 9781849028820

Publisher: Benediction Books, 2009

Synopsis

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 high 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 primary source for Renaissance ideas on both buildings and gardens. In 1952 an attempt was made to produce an English version but the translator gave up. The task has been triumphantly accomplished by Joscelyn Godwin, who succeeds in reproducing all its way ward charm and arcane learning in language accessible to the modern reader.

About this title

Review

"A volume that should undoubtedly find a place in every serious English speaking academy library."

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Benediction Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1849028826
• ISBN 13: 9781849028820
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212