The French translation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Last month, David Pankow, the retired curator of the Cary Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, delivered a wonderful Friends of the Fisher Lecture where he discussed one of the most famous early printed books: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published in 1499 by the Italian printer Aldus Manutius. Generally believed to be written by the monk Franceso Colonna, the story is an allegory in which Poliphilo pursues his love Polia through a dreamlike landscape, and is, seemingly, at last reconciled with her by the Fountain of Venus.

The original 1499 book has long been sought after as it is considered one of the most beautiful incunabula ever printed. While the Fisher Library does not, at present, own the original Italian edition, it does hold an equally impressive edition: the French translation published by the Parisian printer Jacques Kerver. The book, Discours du Songe de Poliphile, was printed in 1546, and included a contemporary French translation by Jean Martin and a new set of woodblocks attributed to Jean Cousin. In fact, as Pankow explains, this edition contains more illustrations than the original Italian version, and is impressive in its own right.

To see and hear more about the Fisher copy of this book, please view it on the Fisher Library's YouTube channel, or view it below.

To hear David Pankow's entire lecture on the original Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, delivered on October 12, 2011, please click here. To hear a shorter clip that summarizes the talk, please click here for a two-minute audio clip.