Ben Mines Posted December 27, 2008 Share Posted December 27, 2008 Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, or The Strife of Love in a Dream, is a Renaissance incunabulum famous for its elegant typography and engravings. It tells the story of a young man's quest for his beloved in a dream, and is believed to be the work of the Italian monk Colonna on the evidence of the acrostic, "Brother Francesco Colonna dearly loved Polia," formed by the first letter of each chapter. Colonna writes in a kind of dream language, a complex compound of Italian and Latin, inaccessible to all but a few tenacious scholars. Only now, five hundred years after the book was first printed, has the entire text been translated into English by Joscelyn Godwin. Godwin recreates the text in modern English for, as he explains, to approximate the style of the original language it would have been necessary to do in English what Colonna did in Italian: invent new words based on Latin and Greek ones. And he gives an example: "In this horrid and cuspidinous littoral site of the algent and fetorific lake stood saevious Tisiphone, efferal with her viperine capillament...". Clearly, the reader owes Godwin his eternal gratitude, but we are not out of the woods yet. Before I come to the beautiful dream that amply justifies the effort of reading this strange book, it is necessary to say something of Poliphili's obsession with architecture. One of H. G. Wells' characters observes, correctly, I think, that what you never seem to be able to do in dreams is focus on little, irrelevant details Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Mines Posted December 27, 2008 Author Share Posted December 27, 2008 Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream Francesco Colonna (Author), Joscelyn Godwin (Translator) Paperback: 497 pages Publisher: Thames & Hudson (June 6, 2005) Language: English ISBN-10: 0500285497 ISBN-13: 978-0500285497 Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.4 inches Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bookologist Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 A great post Ben mines! I'm looking forward to reading this fascinating colossus of literature. People forget just how important these pieces are. Although the book is largely believed to be the work of Francesco Colonna, it is also attributed to Leon Battista Alberti. Either way, the creative mind behind this work is astonishing. How did you find it Ben Mines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookJumper Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 This sounds incredibly intriguing - onerous (though achievably so thanks to the commendable, valiant translator) yet immensely rewarding. Definitely going to hunt it down post-essays! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Mines Posted April 5, 2009 Author Share Posted April 5, 2009 How did you find it Ben Mines?[/font][/size][/font][/size] I found it pretty much as I described in my review: Tedious, eccentric, strange, beautiful, and very rewarding. You will probably wear out several dictionaries looking up obscure architectural terms, but be sure to forge through to the end. It's definitely worth the effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bookologist Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 The one you posted up is the edition I have, however, the picture on the cover, although the same is half the size. Glad I got this one then. Sorry, when I said how did you find it, I meant how did you come across it, by recommendation? I stumbled upon it searching through the ancient section where I was. It definitely stood out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Mines Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 The one you posted up is the edition I have, however, the picture on the cover, although the same is half the size. Glad I got this one then. Sorry, when I said how did you find it, I meant how did you come across it, by recommendation? I stumbled upon it searching through the ancient section where I was. It definitely stood out. Oh. I think I first heard of it reading Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bookologist Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 It's amazing how many books I've bought as a result of reading something else. All the great writers mention who has influenced them in their works at some point. I'm sure Tolstoy brings up Nikolai Gogol in Anna Karenina, don't ask me where! and Bulgakov has mentioned Tolstoy in Master & Margarita etc etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Mines Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 True. Good books talk to and about each other. The Waste Land led me to Kyd and Webster; The Library of Babel to The Anatomy of Melancholy; Ulysses to Homer; The Junky to the Confessions of an English Opium Eater. You could follow the forking paths of this anastomotic world of literature forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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