[COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)] - photo 1
[COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)] - photo 2
[COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)] - photo 3

[COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)]

Lot 144
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 15 120
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1249764
Lot 144 | [COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)]
Estimate value
£ 20 000 – 30 000
[COLONNA, Francesco (1433-1527)]
La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilio. Venice: sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545.
Second edition of what is widely considered the most beautiful book of the 15th century. It tells the story of Polifilo’s search for his lost love, Polia, and his journey through a fantastic dream-world of pyramids and obelisks, classical gardens, ruined temples and bacchanalian festivals, before finding her and gaining ultimate enlightment at the temple of Venus. It has been highly influential both in text and image, even as recently as in Caldwell and Thomason’s best-selling The Rule of Four, in which its hidden meanings feature. Reprinting page-for-page Aldus's 1499 edition, this second edition re-uses the exceptional series of woodcut illustrations, which have lost nothing in freshness. The Paduan miniaturist, Benedetto Bordone, has been advanced as the artist of the illustrations (two blocks are signed 'b'), but the attribution remains unproven. Six blocks have been re-cut: b4v, b5r (2), e2v, e5r and x2r. ‘The original woodblocks, all but a half-dozen in good condition, had been found in storage at San Stefano in 1544, following a new agreement between the two Aldine families fifty years from the beginnings of the Press.’ (G. Scott Clemons & H. George Fletcher, Aldus Manutius: A legacy more lasting than bronze (2015), no. 82. Despite its claim to be 'corrected', the text on fos. n1v and n8r has been transposed, as it was in the first edition. Adams C-2414; Ahmanson-Murphy 335; Mortimer Harvard Italian 131; Renouard 133-34; Essling Pt. I, vol.2:2, no.119; Sander 2057.

Folio (304 x 203mm). Roman type, occasional Greek and Hebrew. 170 fine woodcuts, including 9 full-page, printer's device on title, repeated on final verso, 5- to 9-line initial spaces with guide-letter (faint marginal dampstain at beginning and end, very occasional smudge or small stain, small wormhole in s3 touching a few letters, upper half of p6 replaced in facsimile, a few words on B7r supplied in ms., apparently necessitate by a printing fault). 20th-century gilt-tooled stiff vellum, title, printer and date tooled on front cover, marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
Place of origin:Italy, Europe
Auction house category:Books and manuscripts, Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
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