El viaje hacia la antiguedad en el Sueño de Polifilo de Francesco Colonna (Venecia, 1499)

Abstract

In Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venice, 1499), Poliphilus visits, in his dreams, a series of spaces characterised by the presence of past cultures and essentially depicted through their languages and architectural creations. His oneiric voyage can thus be thought of as a journey towards antiquity. In this paper, we look into the specifics of the recreation of the Ancient world that is offered by Colonna’s book at the dawn of the 16th century. We will consider three ways in which the text and the engravings depict antiquity: as a ruin (1), as a dream (2), and as a hybrid space (3).