⚠Water staining visible on the left margin. Handwritten Spanish section uses period-appropriate abbreviations and cursive script.

POLIPHILUS SENDS MANY GREETINGS TO POLIA.

original: "S. P. D." stands for "Salutem Plurimam Dicit," a formal Latin greeting.

A large decorative woodcut initial 'M' featuring intricate interlaced strapwork or knotwork patterns within a rectangular border.

MANY TIMES, POLIA, REFLECTING HOW
the ancient authors dedicated their works to princes and high-minded men—some for reward, others for favor, and some for praise—I found no prince more worthy for me to dedicate this, my HypnerotomachiaA title combining the Greek words for Sleep, Love, and Struggle; literally "The Strife of Love in a Dream.", than to you, my high Empress. Your extraordinary condition, your incredible beauty, your venerable and greatest virtue, and your most illustrious manners—holding dominion over any Nymph of our age—have excessively inflamed, burned, and consumed me with your noble love. Receive, then, this little gift, radiant with beauty, adorned with every grace, and distinguished by your illustrious presence. You yourself have skillfully fashioned and created this work, for you have painted it within my loving heart with golden arrows and marked it with your own angelic image; thus, you possess it as its sole Patroness. I thereafter commit this gift to your diligent and ingenious judgment, having left behind my original style to translate it into this one at your insistence. Therefore, if any fault appears, or if you find it in any part sterile or lacking in your elegant dignity, you shall be the one accused—for you are the supreme maker and the sole key-bearer of my mind and my heart. For the reward of my great talent and effort, I value and desire nothing else especially but your gracious love and your benign favor.

Farewell.

This is a handwritten addition in Spanish, likely from the late 16th or early 17th century, quoting a famous literary critic of the time. Antonio Agustín in the eleventh dialogue on ancient medals: "A book called Poliphilus, whose title is Hypnerotomachia. B. In what language? Greek, Latin, or Italian? A. In all languages, and in none of them. B. How so? A. Because it seems he wanted to write his dreams and loves in Italian, but he mixes in so many Greek and Latin words, and sought such obscurity and a mixture of these three languages, that we can say he wrote in none of them. B. Now I remember having seen it in the French language, which it seems a curious man translated as if on a wager. A. Unfortunate was he to lose his time on such a book, etc."