Beschreibung:

COLONNA, Francesco (d. 1527)]. Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du songe de Poliphile. Anonymous translation from Latin into French, edited by Jean Martin. Paris: Louis Blaublom for Jacques Kerver 20 August 1546.
COLONNA, Francesco (d. 1527)]. Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du songe de Poliphile. Anonymous translation from Latin into French, edited by Jean Martin. Paris: Louis Blaublom for Jacques Kerver 20 August 1546. 2° (305 x 199mm). Roman, italic, Greek and Hebrew types, woodcut Arabic. Title within woodcut border with putti, male and female terminal figures and grotesques, signed with Kerver's initials in three places, Blaublom's two-turtle device at bottom; 181 woodcut illustrations in various sizes, 13 full-page, including a group of tombstones with typeset text inserted; woodcut 9-line arabesque or criblé initials composing an acrostic including Colonna's name; Kerver's device (Renouard 513) on recto of last leaf. (Washed, short repaired tear in H1 just touching edge of woodcut, single small wormhole in final 2 quires, minor repair to blank corner of \K p \ka5.) Blue morocco janseniste by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, gilt edges. Provenance : a few faint annotations -- Count Ödön Zichy (1811-94; patron of the arts in Austria-Hungary, founder of the Oriental Museum at Vienna; armorial stamp on title) -- Walter Hirst (bookplate). FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH. The woodcuts of Kerver's edition are freely adapted from those of the Aldine editions of 1499 and 1545, restyled to French Renaissance taste. To these are added 14 new illustrations of topiary, formal gardens, and architectural details, and a set of arabesque initials made specially for this edition; they are the first purely arabesque alphabet at Paris (Johnson Decorative initial letters ). At least four different styles can be discerned in the woodcuts, but no artist has been positively identified, although Jean Goujon has been mentioned. Davies, Murray French 99; Mortimer, Harvard French 145.