The Dream of Poliphilus

Large decorative woodcut initial 'O' at the start of the text, featuring classical foliage, scrolled vines, and floral motifs within a square frame.

This marvelous work, Reader, is by Francesco Colonna, who assumed the name of "Poliphilo" original: "Poliphili nomen ementiti". Poliphilo translates to "lover of many things" or "lover of Polia".. I believe he did this either so that, by remaining hidden during his life, he might hear the honest judgments of men regarding himself—just as the painter Apelles used to do—or because, following the example of the architect from Cnidus, he placed his hope for praise and glory in the opinion of posterity rather than in his own age. For, just as that architect had inscribed his own name, "Sostratus of Cnidus, son of Dexiphanes," into a notable stone of the Pharos lighthouse at Alexandria, and then covered it with a thin, crumbling layer of plaster bearing the name of the Egyptian King; so too has this author left his name silently noted in the first letters of each chapter. These initial letters form an acrostic: POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT, which translates to: "Brother Francesco Colonna passionately loved Polia."

His language clearly proves he is Italian by birth. By his surname, he seems to assert that he belongs to the family of the Colonna original: "Columniū". The Colonna were a powerful Roman noble family., from that illustrious house (I believe) which carries on an eternal enmity with the bears A reference to the Orsini family, the long-standing rivals of the Colonna; "Orsini" is derived from "ursa," meaning bear.. His style is entirely new, perhaps devised by him in this manner and forged from a certain mixture of the Greek, Latin, and Tuscan tongues. He did this so that his divine wisdom might reach the understanding of many peoples, and also for the sake of his own memory, as if consecrating himself to immortality through various enduring monuments.

Some say it is in the interest of the state that the secrets hidden beneath these coverings of architecture and ceremony should not be known by the common people. Instead, they should be reserved only for those initiated into the sacred mysteries of a higher philosophy, who have hidden themselves away in the contemplation of obscure things. Indeed, a dream of this kind—with its forest, its fountain, its monster, the darkness and difficulty of the path, the series of labors, the hieroglyphic characters At this time, "hieroglyphics" referred to symbolic pictures believed to contain hidden wisdom, rather than the literal Egyptian writing system., and finally the delay in attaining Polia—all claim this book for a certain great and recondite art.

A Knight of Malta, a man of ready and cultivated talent, had first drafted an outline of this work and had strongly requested that I read it carefully. But when the fortune of each of us soon led us away from here, my friend Jean Martin original: "Ianus Martinus" took up the task of polishing the work, at the request of the noble printer Jacques Kerver. It is indeed filled with such a wealth and variety of excellent things that even the most learned cannot regret how much they may profit from reading it.

FAREWELL.