Francesco Colonna

Francesco Colonna (1433/1434 1527) was an Italian Dominican priest and monk who was
credited with the authorship of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by an acrostic in the text.

Hypnerotomachia Poliphiliillustration (1499).

He lived in Venice, and preached at St. Mark's Cathedral. Besides Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,
he definitely wrote an Italian epic poem called Delfili Somnium, the "Dream of Delfilo' which
went unpublished in his lifetime and was not published until 1959. Colonna spent part of his life
in the monasteryof St. John and St. Paul in Venice, but the monastery was apparently not of
the strictest observance and Colonna was granted leave to live outside its walls. In Ian
Caldwell's and Dustin Thomason's book, The Rule of Four, Francesco Colonna is said to be a
Roman, rather than a monk and the true author of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Colonna