The Strife of Love in a Dream

Jacques Gohory of Paris greets the Reader.

original: "Iacobus Gohorius Parisiensis Lectori S." Gohory was a noted Parisian scholar and alchemist who helped edit this work.

Who would find this strange, Reader? The letter "F" stands for the name of Francesco Colonna, who assumed the name of Poliphilo The "Lover of Polia": I believe he did so either to remain hidden while alive, or so that, following the custom of men, he might hear himself praised as an Apollo; or perhaps because, following the example of the Architect of Cnidus, he placed his hope for praise and glory in posterity through his own judgment. For, just as that architect had inscribed on a famous stone: Sostratus of Cnidus, son of Dexiphanes, and then covered it with plaster bearing the name of the Egyptian King A reference to the lighthouse of Alexandria; the plaster eventually fell away to reveal the true builder's name. So has this author silently noted in the first letters of each chapter: FRANCESCO COLONNA LOVED GREATLY. original: "FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT." This refers to the famous acrostic formed by the decorated initials of the book's chapters. His homeland, Venice, seems to claim him by his surname, being (I believe) from that illustrious family; and this work was perhaps devised in this way so that through the Greek, Latin, and Tuscan languages, a knowledge of many peoples might reach his divine wisdom, to be consecrated to immortality as monuments of his memory. They say it is in the interest of the state that the architectural secrets hidden beneath these things should not be known by the common people. But they have hidden the family of more sacred Philosophy from contemplation by these means alone. For a dream of this kind—the forest, the fountain, the monster of the journey, the sequences, the hieroglyphic characters, and finally the delay in obtaining Polia—is the womb of this book. A Knight of Malta, a man of easy and cultivated genius, had first sketched it out; but soon after he and I were led away from here by our respective fates. Jean Martin original: "Ianus Martinus" took up the task of polishing the work (as is noble to do upon request). Indeed, there is such a wealth of excellent things here that even the most skilled readers cannot regret how much they profit from reading it. FAREWELL.

Count of Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, Sire Henri de Lenoncourt,
Knight of the Order, Governor of the Île-de-France, and Captain of
fifty men-at-arms.

My Lord, although I know your lordship to be continually occupied with the great affairs in which it pleases the Majesty of the King to employ you, such that there is little or no time to attend to matters of pleasure, I shall not fear to dedicate to you this Poliphilo, which in the year fourteen hundred and sixty-seven was composed in Italy by a learned gentleman of an illustrious house, and recently translated into French by another virtuous gentleman of good knowledge. The translation was given to me by a friend of mine, so that I might revise it and assist in bringing it to light: a task I did not wish to acquire as easily as I would desire others to do to complete this unfinished undertaking. The primary reasons (My Lord) that move me to dedicate it to you are, in the first place, the excellence of the subject and the argument of architecture, or the art of building well, which could hardly be bettered. Therefore, I am of the opinion that it is due to you, considering that you take as much pleasure in it as a lord of your quality should, as you have shown in effect in your beautiful building of Nanteuil, for which you yourself devised the arrangements, so convenient and so well understood that there is now no architect in this Kingdom who would not consider it a great work if such or similar inventions had come from his own mind. The second cause is that this book is so abundant in singular and diverse things that we have no other in our language today that can be compared to it; and you take marvelous delight in hearing such readings when your convenience allows. Then the third and principal reason is so that this Poliphilo should not be wandering through the world like an orphan destitute of a protector, but rather that under your endorsement and safeguard, he may be received by the gentlemen who bear you friendship with as good a face as one is accustomed to welcome things that come from friends. Be favorable to him then, My Lord, and receive him (if it please you) as humanely from me who presents him to you, as the gift is made to you with very humble and entire affection: with which I pray the Creator to give you, My Lord, in perfect health, a very long and very happy life. From Paris, this 13th day of August, 1546.