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Miscellaneous Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by Francesco Colonna $70.00 / Thames & Hudson / 1999 The most influential work of renaissance pseudo-erotica, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream) is a dream journey that nearly drowns in imaginative excess. Its hero is a love-wounded monk, whose sick soul is stuffed with the paraphernalia of erotic longing. Poliphilo's dream journey passes through rich fantasy realms filled with nymphs, founains, and strange architecture, forever chasing his elusive Polia. This imaginative tour shows the renaissance mind at its most playful-and most innocent-fully devoted to the purest workings of the dream. For those unfamiliar with renaissance analogy, the texture of this dream may appear strange and even suffocating. But un the mind of renaissance man, every feeling, sight, and memory is the occasion for an arcane comparison. For instance, when the hero meets an elegant nymph, he declares: "Perhaps even the four golden birds tied to the royal basilica of Babylon, called the Tongue of the Gods, could not incline the soul to greater love for the king than I felt, alas, at these breasts." This beautiful edition, published on the 500th anniversary of the book's original issue in Venice, includes exquisite original woodcuts featuring elephants, temples, and many a bare-breasted nymph. The work demonstrates the best in modern publishing with an accomplished translation, limited commentary, and elegant type in a large-format binding. The reader is bound to enjoy the fantastic journey in spite of getting stuck in its rich syrup. Perhaps this little-known work will achieve as large (or at least as devoted) a modern audience as it did at the height of its popularity. It certainly derserves it. —Duke Shadow

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