Introduction
Typography
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Cinematic visual logic
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Mysterious messages
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Synopsis

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Introduction

In many ways the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is nondescript. Published in 1499, it is modeled on the idyllic, pastoral, bucolic romanzo d’amore, a tradition that had reached its peak over a century earlier with its universally acknowledged master, Giovanni Boccaccio, whose works included Filostrato (1333), Teseida (1339-1340), Ninfale Fiesolano (1340s) and Amorosa visione (1342). It is an anachronism. It adds nothing to the amorous imaginary. It brings together all the stereotypical characters traditionally associated with what was by then a highly stylized genre: the enamored hero and the indifferent heroine, attended by scores of stock characters -- nymphs, naiads, satyrs, gods, goddesses, and demigods -- who, all to predictably, sing, dance, make merry, advise, and in general eagerly officiate whenever the opportunity arises for the lovers to engage in one rite of union or another. Its settings bow to the invariable formula of verdant glades, babbling brooks, and enclosed gardens. As for the plot, it too conforms to the conventions of the genre’s time-worn topoi -- the lover’s unrequited love, his quest to win the heart of the heroine, love’s triumph, the illusion dashed.

The action of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili takes place in a dream. The books opens on the hero, Poliphilo, who has spent a restless night because his beloved, Polia, has shunned him. At the break of day, he finally falls into a deep slumber and his "Hypnerotomachia," or, as it can be roughly translated, "struggle for love in a dream," begins. The action is particularly absurd, however, even by the standards of the genre. Poliphilo is transported into a wild forest. He gets lost, escapes, and falls asleep once more. He then awakens in a second dream, dreamed inside the first. Within it, he is taken by some nymphs to meet their queen. There he is asked to declare his love for Polia, which he does. He is then directed by two nymphs to three gates. He chooses the third, and there he discovers his beloved. They are taken by some more nymphs to a temple to be engaged. Along the way they come across no less than five triumphal processions celebrating the union of the lovers. Then they are taken to the island of Cythera by barge, with Cupid as the boatswain; there they see another triumphal procession celebrating their union. The narrative is uninterrupted, and a second voice takes over, as Polia describes he erotomachia from her own point of view. This takes up one fifth of the book, after which the hero resumes his narrative. They are blissfully wed, but Polia vanishes into thin air as Poliphilo is about to take her into his arms.

.... A conventional romanzo. So the book has been read over the past five hundred years. But does this sum up all that is interesting about the erotic theme of the Hypnerotomachia? Only partly, as we shall see. (from pp. 8, 43 of L. Lefaivre’s Leon Battista Alberti’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili). Copyright © 1997. The MIT Press. All rights reserved.