Beschreibung:

COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527). Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, ubi humana omnia non nisi somnium esse docet atque obiter plurima scitu sanequam digna commemorat , in Italian. Venice: Aldus Manutius for Leonardus Crassus, December 1499. Super-chancery 2 o (299 x 194 mm). Collation: s4; a-y 8 z 1 0; A-E 8 F 4 (r title, v dedicatory letter in Latin by Leonardo Crasso to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, r laudatory Latin poem addressed to Crasso by Giovanni Baptista Scytha, unsigned synopses of the work [by the author?] in Latin distichs, Italian prose and Italian tercets, v epigrams by Andreas Maro Brixianus; a1r Book I, z10v blank; A1r Book II, F4r errata and colophon, F4v blank). 234 leaves. 39 lines. Type: Roman types 2:115 = the lower case of 114R, cut by Francesco Griffo, with new majuscules based on inscriptional models (text), and 10:82 (first title, errata, massed capitals in quires q, r, and elsewhere); Greek types 2:114 (occasional words) and 3:84 (errata); Hebrew type (4 lines on b8r-v). 172 WOODCUTS RELIABLY ATTRIBUTED TO THE PADUAN MINIATURIST BENEDETTO BORDON including 11 full-page illustrations. Two 8-line and 37 6-line woodcut chapter initials, the latter printed from 17 blocks from two sets, the initials forming an acrostic reading POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCUS COLUMNA PERAMAVIT. The misprint "Saneque" on A1r corrected in manuscript: the E erased and the last two letters "AM" written in (not stamped, as often); the erroneous signature "E1" for C1 corrected in ink. (Small stain on a8v-b1r, trace of effaced inscription on title, short repaired marginal tear to C2, discreetly repaired tears in upper margins of F1-4, causing loss of a letter of heading on F1r and slightly affecting 5 letters of errata, minor restoration to lower blank corner of errata leaf.) Binding : bound ca. 1810-1818 by FRANçOIS BOZéRIAN in gold-tooled dark blue straight-grained morocco over pasteboard, sides with fillet frame enclosing border of a repeated fan and palanquin tool, highlighted by tiny clover tools and gilt dots, concave squares at corners richly decorated in the mille points style with floral and other small tools on gilt-dotted ground, inner border of delicate small repeated gilt tulip tools and tiny blind-tooled diamonds, the spine in 7 compartments divided by pairs of faux bands, title lettered in the second compartment, the remainder with dense mille points tooling, "Rel. p. Bozerian jeune" lettered in the lower compartment, gilt flecks on board edges and roll-tool along turn-ins, pale orange watered-silk liners, gilt edges (minor scuffing to head and tail of spine and corners, front fore-corners slightly bumped); morocco-backed slipcase and folding chemise. Provenance : Nicolas Yemeniz (1783-1871): bookplate; his library sold en bloc to Ambroise Firmin-Didot-(1790-1876), who dispersed it, Paris sale, 9 May 1867, lot 2249 -- Léon Rattier (d. before 1909): bookplate; sale, 3 June 1913 -- Eugène Wasserman: sale, Brussels, 24 October 1921 -- A. W. M. Mensing (1866-1936): sale, Sotheby's, 15 December 1936 (lot 133) -- Charles Conover Kalbfleisch (1868-1943): booklabel, sale New York, Parke-Bernet, 10 January 1944 -- Francis Kettaneh: bookplate; sale, Paris, 20 May, 1980, lot 28 (to Quaritch, collation note). FIRST EDITION, THE YEMENIZ -- RATTIER -- KETTANEH COPY, OF THE MOST CELEBRATED ILLUSTRATED PRINTED BOOK OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE. An enigmatic tale of love lost and regained, presented in two versions and written in "an extraordinarily exotic Latinate vernacular, a language never spoken and never again attempted in Latin literature" (Martin Davies, Aldus Manutius , 1995, p. 37), the Polifilo has inspired a body of commentary and conjecture disproportionate to its literary merit. From the title, a coinage meaning "a struggle of love in a dream by the lover of Polia," to the oneiric illustrations and text dense with classical allusions, the work has evoked almost as many interpretations as interpreters. "A linguistic a