Beschreibung:

COLONNA, FRANCESCO]. Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du songe de Polophile...Nouvellement traduict de langage Italien en François. Paris: Jacques Kerver 1551. Folio, 320 x 216 (12 5/8 x 8 1/2 in.), nineteenth-century calf, covers gilt-panelled, spine gilt, later black morocco lettering-piece, edges marbled and gilt, joints and extremities rubbed, upper inner hinge cracked, perforation to B1 catching a letter, some light mostly marginal soiling, a few small stains, a very few passages underlined in brown ink . Third Edition of this translation, roman type, title within large woodcut border with cherubs, male and female standing figures, scrollwork, etc., signed by Kerver with his turtle device at bottom, 181 woodcuts in the text, of which 13 full-page, all but one (on B6v, a replacement used in the 1554 edition) reprinted from Kerver's first French edition of 1546, a few criblé initials in preliminary text, 9-line white floriated initials in text forming an acrostic including Colonna's name, Kerver's unicorn device (Renouard 515) on verso of last leaf. Third French edition of the most famous illustrated book of the Renaissance, first published by Aldus Manutius in 1499. Like the authorship of the book itself and the significance of Poliphilus's dream, the attribution of this French translation -- and of the French woodcuts -- is uncertain (cf. Mortimer 145). The woodcuts of the Kerver editions are free adaptations of the original somewhat sparer Italian illustrations: "In general, the artists of the Kerver blocks seem to have regarded the Italian cuts as sketches to be reworked according to French techniques and taste, with shaded lines, elongated figures, and more lavish landscape and architectural detail. Fourteen subjects, all concerned with buildings and formal gardens, were added in the French edition..."--Harvard/Mortimer French 145, this edition 147 (Harvard copy lacking two leaves); Brunet IV, 779, Fairfax-Murray French , 100. Provenance : Edward and Andrew W. Arnold, engraved armorial bookplate.