Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, ubi humana omnia non nisi somnium esse docet
Contributors: Manuzio, Aldo, 1449 or 1450-1515, printer; Riviere & Son
Publisher: Aldus Manutius
Published: 1499
Place of publication: Venice]
Language: lat
Number of pages: 234
Subjects: Italian fiction; Early works to 1800; Costume; History; Festivals
Notes: Hain * 5501. Essling 1198. Renouard, p. 21-22. BMC v. 561.IB.24500. Van Praet, part 2, iv, p. 98.

Roman type (Proctor 5574); 38-39 lines.

On l. 5a, line 5, the last letter of the word SANEQVE has been erased and AM stamped in to read: SANEQVAM.

First edition. The most famous of Venetian illustrated books. Printed by Aldus at the expense of and for Leonardo Crasso, a jurisconsult of Verona who owned the copyright and secured a prolongation in 1508-9 as he "had drawn no profit from it, nor had been able to sell it owing to the wars."--Horatio F. Brown. The Venetian printing press, London, 1891. p. 58. This, the only illustrated book printed by Aldus, was on a more elaborate scale and not in the style of his own publications. The authorship is generally credited to Francesco Colonna, a Dominican friar, who had been a teacher of rhetoric at Treviso and Padua.

Illustrations: 170 woodcuts of various sizes: ornamental initials of three styles in two sizes, strapwork on shaded background, and plain on floral backgrounds, and three large initials--P, strapwork, -- L, floral, -- E, interlaced branches. "As regards the authorship of the wonderful illustrations the sig. nature .b. on the third has led to their being attributed to numerous celebrated artists, but it is now fairly well recognized that celebrated artists in Italy did not concern themselves with bookwork, and that .b. is probably the signature of a woodcutter's workshop. Attempts to make a list of other books illustrated by the same hand are baffled by the dual personality which has to be dealt with. The present writer is inclined to doubt whether the same designer and the same illustrator worked together in any other book." Dyson Perrins 139: see also Josef Poppelreuter. Der anonyme Meister des Poliphilo, Strassburg, 1904.

Avery Classics copy: Bound and signed by Riviere & Son in later red morocco, with gold-tooled architectural motif on front and back covers.

Avery Classics copy: With the bookplate of Robert Hartshorne, Highlands, New Jersey on front cover verso.

Also available on microfilm.