Word & Image

A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry

ISSN: 0266-6286 (Print) 1943-2178 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/twim20

The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and Renaissance

Egyptology

Brian A. Curran

To cite this article: Brian A. Curran (1998) The Hypnerotomachia�Poliphili and Renaissance
Egyptology, Word & Image, 14:1-2, 156-185, DOI: 10.1080/02666286.1998.10443948

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02666286.1998.10443948

Published online: 14 Sep 2012.

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The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and Renaissance
Egyptology
BRIAN A. CURRAN
Among the imaginary ancient monuments encountered
by Poliphilo in the 'archaeological dreamscape' of the
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a significant number contain ele-
ments that can be considered Egyptian or Egyptianizing
in character. These include the immense pyramid-temple
topped with an obelisk (figure I), the hieroglyph-covered
obelisk intersecting the back of a giant stone elephant
(figure 2), the sphinx-supported obelisk in the gardens of
Queen Eleuterilda (figure 3), and a number of 'hiero-
glyphic inscriptions,' most of them of a distinctly
un-Egyptian appearance, such as the one from the base
of the aforementioned elephant (figure 4), the obelisk of
Caesar in the Polyandrion (figure 5), the bridge into
the realm of Queen Eleuterilda (figure 6) and other
monuments.
All of these elements, obelisks, pyramids, sphinxes, and
hieroglyphs, had been introduced into the vocabulary of
Italian art during the Quattrocento 'revival of antiquity.' I
And, while the 'Egyptian studies' of the Renaissance
hardly constituted a discrete discipline such as the term
'Egyptology' might suggest, the investigation of the literary
and monumental legacy of ancient Egypt during the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was more intense and
more sophisticated than is generally appreciated. Indeed,
the rediscovery and aesthetic recognition of Egyptian art
is one of the least appreciated achievements of the period. 2
During the first half of the Quattrocento, humanist
scholars and 'archaeologists' began to be intrigued by
the symbolic possibilities of the hieroglyphs or the
'sacred letters' of the Egyptians. Without exception, the
ancient authors (Diodorus Siculus, Tacitus, Ammianus
Marcellinus, and Plutarch among them) described these
inscriptions, which could still be seen carved on the faces
of the obelisks and other Egyptian monuments in Rome,
as allegorical pictographs that had been devised by the
Egyptian priests to conceal their religious and scientific
doctrines from the 'vulgar' masses while simultaneously
preserving them for the enlightened or initiated elite that
would be able to unravel their meanings. 3 By the 1430S,
thanks to the rediscovery and increased availability of
these texts as well as the Hierogfyphica of Horapollo, a late
antique work that presented itself as a kind of dictionary
of hieroglyphic symbols and their allegorical meanings,
WORD &
0266-6286/98 $12'00 © 1998 Taylor & Francis Ltd
humanists like Niccolo Niccoli, Poggio Bracciolini, and
that intrepid pioneer of Greek archaeology, Cyriacus of
Ancona, were able to recognize the carvings on the
obelisks and other Egyptian monuments in Rome as the
'sacred letters of the Egyptians' described by the ancient
authors. 4
The obelisks, sphinxes, and other Egyptian antiquities
of Rome constituted the material legacy of the Roman
fascination with Egyptian art and religion that flourished
from the time of Augustus' conquest of Egypt in the late
1st century BO until the triumph of Christianity and the
collapse of the western empire in the late 4th and early
5th centuries AD. 5 By the later Middle Ages, however,
most of these monuments lay broken in the ruins of the
ancient city. The only large obelisk that remained intact
and upright was the one at the Vatican (figure 7), which
rose on the site of the ancient Circus of Gaius and Nero
just south of St Peter's Basilica. 6 Although it must be
counted among the largest and most impressive obelisks
ever quarried, the Vatican obelisk represents something of
an anomaly, since it lacks a hieroglyphic inscription (the
pair of smaller obelisks erected at the Mausoleum of
Augustus share this feature). A mis-reading of its Latin
dedication to Tiberius and the 'Divine Augustus, son of
the Divine Julius,' coupled with an association with
Suetonius' description of the 'column of solid Numidean
marble' raised in the forum in Caesar's memory, appar-
ently inspired the medieval identification of the obelisk as
the tomb of Julius Caesar, whose ashes were believed to
be interred in the bronze solar globe at its summit. 7
During the fifteenth century there were two other
obelisks standing in Rome. The first of these was a
fragment, consisting of the upper shaft and pyramidion of
an obelisk of Rameses II, whose lower shaft was restored
with a recarved column of the same Egyptian Syenite
granite (called granito rosso) and re-erected in the north-
eastern corner of the Piazza del Campidoglio sometime
during the later Middle Ages. It was raised on a base of
the same material, supported by four white-marble half-
lions of 'Cosmatesque' style, and topped by a bronze globe
(presumably ancient), as we see in a drawing by the
Netherlandish artist Maarten van Heemskerck of c. 1535
(figure 8).8 Around 1540, the obelisk was taken down and
IMAGE, VOL. 14, NO. 1 / 2 , JANUARY-JUNE 1998

., ,..
Figure I . The Pyramid Temple. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice, 1499,
fo1. b. i-v (Marquand Library, Princeton University, SAPX NE 910
18C6. 1499).
left lying in the cemetery of S. Maria in Aracoeli nearby,
until it was presented to the Roman nobleman Ciriaco
Mattei, who re-erected it in his villa on the Caelian hill
in 1582.9
The second and more complete obelisk, also inscribed
for Rameses II, stood in the Piazza di San Macuto east of
the Pantheon (near the site of the ancient sanctuary of Isis
and Serapis) along with a collection of fragments of other
obelisks (including, possibly, the Campidoglio one) built
into the walls of the surrounding buildings. I o At the
beginning of the fifteenth century, the topographer known
as the 'Anonimo Magliabechiano' described this obelisk as
lying 'broken' in the center of the piazza, but by the
middle of the century, at the latest, the shaft had been
re-erected on a low base, supported by a set of cubic
deuaad in trait ndh Elcphantina machinaaui(cmt2 ;
Figure 2 . Elephant and Obelisk. lfypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice, 1499,
fo1. b. vii-v (Marquand Library, Princeton University, SAPX NE 910
18C6. 1499).
astragals. II In 171 I, it was moved to the fountain in the
Piazza della Rotonda, where it can be seen today
(figure 9). 12
Although diminutive in comparison with the great
monolith at the Vatican, the Campidoglio and S. Macuto
obelisks attracted considerable attention from humanists
and artists interested in their hieroglyphic inscriptions. But
these were not the only hieroglyphs that could be seen in
Rome during the Renaissance. In addition to a few statues
with hieroglyphic inscriptions on their bases (notably the
pair of lions of Nectanebo I, which were installed in front
of the Pantheon by the 12th century) there were also a
number of fallen obelisks, whose broken, hieroglyph-
covered shafts could be seen in various locations within
157
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Figure 4. Hieroglyphs from the Base of the Elephant-Obelisk.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice, 2nd edn, 1545, fol. c. i-r (Marquand
Library, Princeton University, SAPX NE 910 18C6. 1545Q).

Figure 3. Trinitarian Obelisk. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice, 1499, fol.
h. v-r (Marquand Library, Princeton University, SAPX NE 910 18C6.
1499)·
and without the city walls. '3 Among these, perhaps the
most celebrated was the obelisk of Domitian, originally
fashioned for a sanctuary of the Egyptian gods in Rome
(or perhaps in Egypt), that lay in five pieces in the ruins
of the Circus of Maxentius on the Via Appia outside the
Aurelian wallS. 14 During the Renaissance, this monument
was generally known, after the popular name for its
location near the tomb of Caecelia Metella, as the obelisk
of the 'Capo di Bove.' In the middle of the seventeenth
century, after an effort to purchase the obelisk and bring
it to London for the king of England failed, the obelisk
was repaired and re-erected on Bernini's Fountain of the
Four Rivers in the Piazza Navona (figure 10).'5
The idea that the hieroglyphs had been devised as a
secret system of allegorical signification reserved for the
elite could hardly fail to challenge the imaginations (not
to mention the snobbery) of the Quattrocento humanists
and their patrons. One of the earliest and most influential
arguments for the 'revival' of the hieroglyphs appears in
Leon Battista Alberti's De re aedifoatoria, a version of which
was presented (or 'shown') to Pope Nicholas V in 1452.'6
In the context of a discussion of commemorative and
funerary monuments and inscriptions, Alberti suggested
that the hieroglyphs might provide a non-linguistic altern-
ative to alphabetical inscriptions, whose meanings could

158 BRIAN CURRAN

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ximz dccreCcunc. tum (c. 1465-73) (Princeton University Library, MS Garrett 158, fol. 6v).

Figure 5. Hieroglyphs from the Obelisk of Caesar. Hypnerotomachia

Poliphili, Venice, 1499, fol. p. vi-v (Marquand Library, Princeton
University, SAPX NE 910 I8C6. 1499).
PATIENTJA EST OR A ENTvM CVSTO
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1545, fol. d. vii-r (Marquand Library, Princeton University, SAPX NE
910I8C6. 1545q)·
eventually be lost with the decline of the language on
which they were based (as had happened with the
Etruscans):
The Egyptians employed the following sign language: a god
was represented by an eye, nature by a vulture, a king by
a bee, time by a circle, peace by an ox, and so on. They
maintained that each nation knew only its own alphabet,
and that eventually all knowledge of it would be lost - as
has happened with our own Etruscan: we have seen sepulch-
ers uncovered in city ruins and cemeteries throughout
Etruria inscribed with an alphabet universally acknowledged
to be Etruscan; their letters look not unlike Greek, or even
Latin, yet no one understands what they mean. The same,
the Egyptians claimed, would happen to all other alphabets,
whereas the method of writing they used could be under-
stood easily by expert men all over world, to whom alone
noble matters should be communicated.'7
Alberti proceeds to argue that the Greeks and 'our own
Latin ancestors' followed the Egyptians when they devised
their own monuments 'to express the deeds of their most
famous men through sculpted histories' in the form of

1 59
Figure 8. Maarten van Heemskerck, Capitoline Obelisk (c. 1535) (Berlin,
Staat!. Mus. Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, 79D2 =
Vol. I, fol. IIr).
'columns, triumphal arches, and porticoes, covered with
histories in painting, or sculpture."a Thus Alberti appears
to place the invention of hieroglyphs at the beginning of
the history of the figurative arts, ceding, in the process,
the invention of this art to the Egyptians. 19
The paradoxical notion that this 'universal' system could
be reserved to an enlightened elite was supported by the
ancient sources, notably Diodorus and Apuleius. 20 But the
notion that 'noble matters' (of religious and scientific
doctrine) should be kept from the eyes of the uncompre-
hending masses was hardly unique to the hieroglyphs, and
may be considered a recurring theme or topos of late
antique philosophy, pagan and Christian alike. 21 For
Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
this mode of thought was exemplified by the writings
attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, who explained the
often disturbing symbolism of the Scriptures as a kind of
allegorical veil that served to 'keep the holy and secret
truth respecting the celestial minds inaccessible to the
multitude. '22 Alberti was certainly familiar with Dionysius'
works, which had been influential in the West during the
Middle Ages, and had only recently been made available
in a new Latin translation by Alberti's Florentine colleague,
Ambrogio Traversari.o3 Alberti's idea that the Egyptians
somehow anticipated the extinction of their language and
invented the hieroglyphs to ensure that memory of their
achievements would survive appears to derive, at least in
part, from Ammianus Marcellinus' statement that the
Egyptians created the hieroglyphs so that 'the memory of
their achievements' might 'more widely reach generations
of a subsequent age.'24 He may also have been inspired
by the famous 'apocalyptic' passage in the Latin Asclepius,
where the Egyptian Hermes, foreseeing the future extinc-
160 BRIAN CURRAN
Figure 9. S. Macuto Obelisk (Rameses II) in the Piazza della Rotonda.
Photo: author.
tion of Egyptian civilization, laments that nothing would
be left for future generations 'but words engraved on
stones. '25 But, where the early Christian Fathers had
interpreted Hermes' lament as a prophecy of paganism's
fall, Alberti appears to have reformulated it into a 'positive'
explanation for the invention of the hieroglyphs. 26 It was
a notion which, despite its apparent contradictions, had
an enormous appeal in humanist circles, and was especially
important for the development of the 'science' of
emblematics. 27
Indeed, Alberti had already taken steps in this direction
with the creation of his own personal device or 'hiero-
glyph,' the famous winged eye, which appears in some
Albertian manuscripts as well as on his celebrated 'self-
portrait' medallion (c. 1435-8, figure 11) and the somewhat
later medal by Matteo de Pasti (c. 1448-50).oa In some
versions the winged eye is provided with the motto, Qy,id
Tum (which can be read as 'What then?,' 'What if?' or
'What next?'), a phrase Alberti may have drawn from the
writings of Cicero. 29 In his Latin dialogue Anuli ('Rings,'
in the collection of Intercenales, c. 1430-40), which includes

Figure 10. The Fountain if Four Rivers with the Pamphilian Obelisk.
Photo: author.
an impressive collection of other 'hieroglyphic' symbols,
Alberti describes the device as a symbol of the swiftness
and supreme power of the eye, which is endowed with an
almost divine power over the natural world. 30
But, while the creative impact of Alberti's theory of the
hieroglyph on the art of his own time appears to have
been positive, it would appear that his theory of universal!
elite symbolism was of little help to his contemporaries'
(presumed) attempts to translate the actual inscriptions on
the obelisks and other monuments in Rome. The failure
of these efforts, if indeed they were ever made, can be
deduced from the resounding silence of the sources con-
cerning this problemY Horapollo's Hieroglyphica, for one,
must have revealed its limitations as a tool for deciphering
actual Egyptian inscriptions fairly quickly. In addition to
its complete lack of syntactical information, Horapollo's
treatise included numerous 'hieroglyphs' (like the man
eating the hourglass, etc.) that were nowhere to be seen
on the obelisks. Indeed, despite his expressed confidence
in their legibility, and his obvious archaeological interest
Figure II. Leon Battista Alberti, Self-Portrait Medal (c. 1436-8) (National
Gallery, Washington, DC).
in obelisks, Alberti does not appear to have made a serious
effort to test his theory against a 'reading' of the hiero-
glyphs on the monuments. 3•
In his capacity as an architect and expert in ancient
monuments, however, Alberti was almost certainly
involved in Nicholas V's project to move the (hieroglyph-
less) Vatican obelisk to the piazza in front of St Peter's.33
In the mid-I450s, the base of the monument was cleared
(as we see in the drawing, figure 7, from the Marcanova
codex in Princeton) and machines were designed to lift
the obelisk and move it to its new location. 34 According
to Nicholas V's secretary Gianozzo Manetti, the plan
envisioned raising the great monolith on life-size bronze
figures of the four Evangelists and the installation of a
figure of the risen Christ on top of the bronze ball at its
summit. 35 This project was perhaps too ambitious to be
realized at this time, and was ultimately abandoned.
Although attempts were made at various points to revive
the plan to move the obelisk to St Peter's piazza, they all
came to naught until 1586, when Nicholas V's dream was
finally realized by the unstoppable Sixtus V and his
architect, Domenico Fontana, in a feat that was considered
an engineering miracle in its own day.s6
161
 But although the plan itself remained unrealized,
Nichoias V's obelisk project proved influential among
architects and artists almost immediately. In particular,
the plan to raise the obelisk on Atlas-like figures and
mount a statue on its summit directly inspired the 'paper'
obelisk monument devised by Filarete for his Treatise on
Architecture (written in Milan, c. 1460-65, figure 12).37 In
the text, which is structured as a fictional narrative
detailing the construction of an 'ideal city' and its adjoining
harbor complex, Filarete is ordered by his patron, the
Duke of Milan, to 'think up some beautiful fantasy and
have it built as quickly as possible' as a monument for an
ancient king whose rediscovered treasure will provide the
funding for its construction. 38 The result: an obelisk raised
Figure 12. Filarete, Florence, Traftato di Architettura (1460-65) (Biblioteca
Nazionale, ms. Magliabecchianus II. IV. 140, fol. 102V).
162 BRIAN CURRAN
on a multi-tiered base consisting of a colonnade, two rows
of Atlas figures and a set of gilt-bronze lion supports; and
topped by a bronze globe and pointer on which the king's
statue uncomfortably squats, anticipating the elaborate
obelisk monuments of the lfypnerotomachia.
Filarete's Treatise bears a number of interesting similarit-
ies, especially in its architectural aesthetics, to the
lfypnerotomachia. Like Poliphilo, Filarete presents himself as
an enthusiastic student of antiquity, who is passionately
committed to understanding and reviving the iconographic
and design principles of the ancient architects. Filarete
explains the harmonic system of the ancient builders as
based on an almost mystical system of relationships and
correspondences derived from the proportions of the
human body.39 These anthropomorphic principles had
been followed by the ancient peoples, including 'the
Egyptians and others,' who passed them in turn to the
Greeks and Romans. 40
Indeed, Filarete's opinion of the Egyptians is even more
favorable than Alberti's. While Alberti, following the
opinion of his Greek and Roman sources, scorned the
pyramids as 'monstrous works' that exemplified the luxuria
of 'Asian' architecture, Filarete is content to admire them
as 'noble monuments of kings and their histories,' and
notes that the Romans imitated them with their own
tombs in RomeY This 'multicultural' and rather eastern-
oriented conception of antiquity is exemplified by the
episode of the discovery of the 'golden book' of King
Zogalia, whose elaborate descriptions of ancient buildings
(in Greek) provide the inspiration for the aforementioned
obelisk monument and other constructions in the port-
city of Plusiapolis. 42 In Filarete's Treatise, as in the
lfypnerotomachia, the remains of the ancient world function
not only as models for the inventions of modern artists
and architects, but as messengers from a lost, chthonic
realm who have chosen this moment to 'return to life' to
reveal their mysteries to the contemporary world. 43
Among the antiquities seeking a new life, as it were, are
the obelisks which Filarete has seen, and apparently spent
some time studying, in Rome. At one point, during a
discussion of Roman theaters and circuses, Filarete refers
to the fallen obelisk in the circus at the 'Capo di Bo[ve],'
whose surfaces, he recalls, were 'all carved with Egyptian
letters.'44 Asked to describe these carvings, Filarete obliges,
admitting in the process that he doesn't know how to
decipher them:
They are all picture-letters; some have one animal, some
another, some have a bird, some a snake, some an owl,
some are like a saw and some like an eye, and some with
some kinds ciffigures, some with one thing and then another,
so that there are few that can translate them. It is true that
the poet Francesco Filelfo told me that some of these animals
meant one thing and some another. Each one had its own
meaning. The eel means envy. Thus each one has its own
 meaning. If they had not made them as they did, but as
others did, they could be spelled out. The ones I have
discovered in the forms of animals can perhaps be spelled
out like letters ... For the present there is not enough time
to tell you more about this. I will tell you another time
when we have more leisure. 45
In contrast with Alberti's brieflist of hieroglyphs, which
appear to have been derived exclusively from the literary
sources, Filarete's examples (bird, snake, owl, saw, eye,
and eel) correspond much more precisely to the images
that could be seen on the obelisks in Rome. But his
reluctance to propose translations of them stands in con-
trast with Alberti's confident assumption of their legibility
(at least by the elite). It appears that Filarete, a sculptor
and architect who lacked the humanist education of
Alberti, did not count himself among the learned 'few'
who were able to decipher them. Instead, he defers to the
expertise of Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481), one of the
leading humanists in the Milanese court. 46 Filelfo's descrip-
tion of the hieroglyphs as image-signs 'each with their
own meaning' is almost certainly informed by Horapollo's
Hieroglyphica, a copy of which Filelfo is known to have
ownedY Indeed, the one sign whose meaning Filarete
recalls, the eel as a symbol of envy, comes directly from
Horapollo's hieroglyphic 'dictionary.'48
But Filarete's reluctance to discuss the meaning of the
'archaeological' hieroglyphs does not prevent his patron
from ordering the architect to devise an original hiero-
glyphic inscription, to be carved on an obelisk in the new
theater complex:
He also wanted an obelisk erected in the middle of these
two theaters with the letters that I have mentioned in the
forms of animals and other things, almost like the Egyptian
ones. He wanted me to write his name and the date, that
is the year. He said he wanted this done before he under-
stood them, although, as he said, he wanted them explained
to him later. 49
Although this project is not developed further in the
text, the discussion ofthe hieroglyphs in Filarete's treatise
illustrates the rupture between the reception of the 'archae-
ological' hieroglyphs, which could be seen on the ancient
monuments in Rome, and the 'modern' ones, which were
devised in imitation of the ancient ones as described in
the literary sources. In the case of the archaeological
inscriptions, the general reluctance or failure to attempt
'translations' on the basis of the literary evidence is
reflected by the resounding silence on the subject that
echoes through the surviving literature (for a significant
exception. involving Piero Valeriano and Fra Urbano
Bolzanio, see below). But this does not preclude the
invention of original compositions in the hieroglyphic
manner, where the secret code can be determined, in
advance, by the artist and/or his learned 'adviser,' and
can be enjoyed as a kind of learned parlor game to
challenge the cleverness of the artist and the erudition of
his patron. The fundamental disjuncture between the
'archaeological' and the 'creative' hieroglyph must be
considered a factor even in the cases of those few who,
like Poliphilo and Annius of Viterbo (see below), claimed
to be able to read them.
While the hieroglyphs continued to be a dominant
theme in discussions of Egypt throughout the period, the
reputation of the Egyptians received a boost in the second
half of the Quattrocento thanks to the rediscovery and
dissemination of the philosophical and religious writings
attributed to the Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus. 50
The Greek Hermetic texts (the Latin Asclepius was already
well known) were translated into Latin in 1463 by Marsilio
Ficino, whose commentaries emphasized the anticipations
of Christian doctrine that he claimed to find in these
dialogues, which he dated to the time of Moses. 5' Through
numerous printed editions and a series oflater translations
of Neoplatonic texts by Iamblichus, Plotinus, and others,
Ficino established the reputation of Hermes as a pagan
prophet who stood at the forefront of a divinely inspired
'ancient theology' which descended from the Egyptians to
the Greeks, and found its fulfillment in Christian revela-
tionY So successful was this 'prophetic' notion of Hermes
that the Egyptian sage was granted a place on the mosaic
pavement of the Duomo of Siena (1488) at the head of a
cycle of pagan Sibyls (figure 13).53 In the nave of the
church, just inside the central portal, we see 'Hermes
Trismegistus, contemporary of Moses,' handing a book
(inscribed 'Take up Laws and Letters, 0 Egyptians') to a
pair of followers. 54 His left hand rests on a tablet, inscribed
with a passage from the Latin Asclepius that the early
Christian father Lactantius had identified as a reference
to the Son of God. 55
In an 'Egyptianizing' touch, the tablet is supported by
a pair of winged sphinxes. Although the winged, classical
form of these sphinxes is obviously derived from Greco-
Roman models, they were almost certainly intended as
symbols of Egyptian hieroglyphic wisdom. The late
Classical idea that the Egyptians devised the sphinx as
symbol of their concealed 'hieroglyphic' doctrines was
revived at about this time in the philosophical writings of
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94).56 In his oration
De hominis dignitate ('On the Dignity of Man,' written
c. 1486, but not published until after his death in 1494),
Pico observes that the 'ancient philosophers' held the
opinion that divine mysteries should be reserved for the
enlightened few and kept hidden from the eyes of the
multitude, a doctrine which the Egyptians represented by
carving sphinxes on the walls of their temples, to remind
themselves that 'mystic doctrines should be kept inviolable
from the profane multitude by means of the entanglements
of enigmas.'57
Figure 13. Giovanni di Stefano, Hennes Trismegistus (1488) (Siena, Duomo. Alinari Art Resource).

164 BRIAN CURRAN

 But perhaps the most spectacular evidence for the
exalted status that was accorded to the Egyptians by the
last decade of the Quattrocento is found in the frescoes
of the 'Sala dei Santi' in the Apartment of the Borgia
Pope Alexander VI in the Vatican Palace, painted by
Pinturicchio between 1493 and 1495Y The entire vault
is dedicated to the myth of Isis and Osiris and the
institution of the cult of the Egyptian sacred bull, Apis,
with incidents and details culled from a number of ancient
sources, most notably Diodorus Siculus' account of Osiris
and Isis as ancient rulers who were deified after their
deaths for their contributions to human civilization. On
the Borgia ceiling, the good works of the Egyptian king
and his consort are presented as antetypes for the rule of
the Borgia papacy, while Osiris is identified as an ancestor
of the Borgia family through his manifestation, after death,
as the sacred bull Apis, symbol of the peace-giving arts of
agriculture, who is presented as the prototype of the
heraldic bull of the Borgia arms. 59
Although Pinturicchio's Osiris cycle treats such unpleas-
ant themes as fratricide and dismemberment, the overall
tone is of unbridled fantasy and courtly pageant. The
ornate thrones and tombs that figure so prominently in
the Osirian scenes, although heavily outfitted with pyr-
amids (figure 14), mythological statues, sphinxes, and other
antiquarian bric-a-brac, invoke contemporary altars and
reliquaries as much (if not more) than anything 'authentic-
ally' antique. Indeed, the sphinx-supports on the throne
of Osiris in the 'fruit-gathering' scene (figure IS), with
their authentically 'pharaonic' nemes-headresses, bear a
closer resemblance to 'Cosmatesque' medieval imitations,
like the thirteenth century sphinxes in the Lateran Cloister
(figure 16), than they do to the antique 'originals' that
could be seen in Rome. 60
The Osirian cycle in the Borgia Apartment was almost
certainly inspired by the 'researches' of the Dominican
friar Giovanni Nanni, known to his contemporaries (and
to posterity) as Annius ofViterbo (c. 1432-1502).6, Annius
is one of the most notorious figures of the Italian
Renaissance, renowned, condemned, and perhaps secretly
admired as a consummate forger and a practitioner of
pseudo-history and pseudo-archaeology on a grand scale. 62
Annius' greatest claim to fame is his publication of a
collection of forged 'ancient texts,' written by himself and
published with his own learned commentaries as the
Commentaria ... super opera diversorum auctorum de Antiquitatibus
('Commentaries on works of various authors discussing
antiquities,' better known as the Antiquitates), first published
in Rome in 1498 (with the privilege of Alexander VI) and
reprinted and translated many times over the course of
the next century.63 Through this collection of pseudo-
authorities, Annius claimed to have discovered irrefutable
proof that the earliest European civilization of post-
Diluvian times was established not by the Greeks (as their
mendacious historians claimed), but in Italy, indeed, in
Annius' native city ofViterbo itself, by no less a personage
than Noah, whom Annius (following an established medi-
eval tradition) identified with the Etruscan founder-god,
Janus. 64 Among the early founders of this primordial,
proto-Etruscan civilization, it is somewhat surprising to
encounter the Egyptian Osiris (also known as Apis, and
'whom Moses called Mesriam'), described as the son of
Noah's least favorite offspring, Cham. 65 According to
Annius, Osiris came to Italy from Egypt with his son,
Hercules Libyus (or Aegyptius) in the sixth century after
the Flood, when the colonies established by his father
Janus-Noah had been overrun by a race of evil giants. 66
Following the defeat of the giants, Osiris ruled in Viterbo
for ten years, re-establishing the rule of law and
re-educating the people in the agricultural arts which had
been introduced by his forefather. He then returned to
Egypt, where he was killed and dismembered by his
jealous brother Typhon. Hercules and his mother Isis
began another war against Typhon and the other evil
giants, after which Hercules returned to Italy, where he
drained the swamps of the Arno on the site where the city
of Florence would later be founded. 67
Annius was a sly flatterer as well as a cunning forger.
Drawing on his historiographic fabrications, he provided
the Farnese family with a genealogy that traced their noble
lineage back to Osiris, and there is every reason to believe
that he prepared a genealogy for the Borgia, whose details
(including descent from Osiris-Apis through Hercules
Aegyptius) can be traced in the imagery of the Borgia
frescoes. 68 Elaborate, mythical-heraldic genealogies were
hardly unusual in this period, and reflected a continuation
of the medieval (and, ultimately, ancient Greek and
Roman) practice of explaining the origins and history of
a place or family in symbolic and etymological terms. 69
But what marks Annius as a truly 'Renaissance man' is
his unprecedented effort to back up his literary claims
with 'archaeological' evidence, most of ~hich he either
discovered or had 'excavated,' presumably after having
planted the evidence himself. 70 The most unexpected of
these discoveries is probably the so-called 'Columna
Osiriana,' which Annius discovered ornamenting the
pulpit of the cathedral of Viterbo (figure 17).7' According
to Annius, this tablet, which is now preserved in the
Museo Civico at Viterbo, was inscribed in 'the sacred
letters of the Egyptians' to commemorate the victory of
Osiris over the giants during the sixth century PD (Post-
Diluvium).7 2
In his extended discussion of the 'Columna,' published
in the Antiquitates, Annius provides word-for word 'transla-
tion' of its hieroglyphic imagery, proceeding from a (rather
far-fetched) interpretation of the oak tree in the center of
the lunette-shaped 'main tablet' (which also includes a
number of animal motifs: birds, a bird's nest, and a lizard
Figure 14. Pinturicchio, The Burial oj Osiris (1493-5) (Sala dei Santi, Vatican Museums. Alinari Art Resource).

166 BRIAN CURRAN

Figure 15. Pinturicchio, Osiris Teaching the Egyptians to Gather Fruit (1493-5) (Sala dei Santi, Vatican Museums. Alinari Art Resource).
Figure 16. Sphinx in the Lateran Cloister, Rome (c. 1215-32). Photo: author.
or salamander, all of which Annius describes - and
translates - as hieroglyphs) as a 'disguised' representation
of a scepter (or, more specifically, compounded multiple
scepters) with its branches on the upper part taking the
form of an eye, forming the hieroglyphic spelling of Osiris'
name as described in Macrobius' Satumalia. 73 The rest of
his 'translation' is informed by 'hieroglyphs' described by
Lactantius, Tibullus, Pliny the Elder, and especially
Diodorus, whose description of the hieroglyphic inscrip-
tions of Isis and Osiris at Nysa in Arabia established the
model for his own 'translation,' which mimics Diodorus'
repeated phrases, 'Ego sum Osiris' and 'Ego sum Isis. '74
But the majority of Annius 'hieroglyphic' interpretations
appear to be his own imaginative (or 'intuitive') inventions.
A portion of his description and translation will suffice to
capture its general character:
Our ancestors, in order to keep always before our eyes the
eternal memory of the antiquity of our city, posted a column
or tablet of alabaster on the rostra of the former temple of
Hercules, now the temple of Saint Lawrence. It is the
monument of Osiris' triumph, inscribed with sacred
168 BRIAN CURRAN
Egyptian letters in the form of birds, animals, heads and
trees, about which the authors often write.
And Pliny, in his Natural History, says that these images
that you see are Egyptian sacred letters (hieroglyphs).
Therefore, on this column there is a space, in the middle
of which is the trunk of an oak tree, resembling a com-
pounded scepter, the tops of whose branches form the image
of an eye. These images are particular to Osiris, as
Xenophon affirms. Both he and Macrobius, in the first
book of the Saturnalia, confirm this, saying that to express
Osiris in the sacred letters they carved a scepter, and
they [also] represented him with the image of an eye. And
by this sign they showed Osiris. Moreover, they placed
on this tree trunk not one but many scepters, because he
ruled not only one, but every part of the world, as
Diodorus writes.
... Therefore, these ... effigies are read in this fashion:
'I am Osiris the king, who was called against by the Italians
and hastened to fight against the oppressors of the Italian
dominion ... I am Osiris, who taught the Italians to plow,
to sow, to prune, to cultivate the vine, gather grapes, and
make wine, and I left behind for them my two nephews, as
guardians of the realm from land and sea.'75

Figure 17. The 'Columna Osiriana' (Museo Civico, Viterbo). Photo: author.
It is difficult for the modern observer to appreciate the
means by which Annius came to identify this curious
assemblage, which combines a thirteenth-century marble
lunette, with a pair of somewhat later profile heads that
Annius identified as Osiris and his cousin Sais Xantho,
as an 'Egyptian hieroglyphic column,' since it bears no
discernible resemblance to the 'authentic' hieroglyphic
monuments that Annius undoubtedly saw in Rome.?6 The
situation is hardly unique, since, as we shall see, the
circumstances of Annius' identification appear to be par-
alleled by the adoption of Roman images (likewise taken
from marbles preserved in church pulpits) for the hiero-
glyphic compositions of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. And
we must not forget that Annius' identification of 'Columna
Osiriana' was widely accepted, at least in Viterbo, for a
century or more after its 'discovery.' Indeed, during the
sixteenth century, the tablet was moved to the town hall
and provided with a Latin inscription based on Annius'
'translation' of its 'hieroglyphic' imagery.?7
This, then, was the (eclectic and unfixed) state of
research in Egyptian antiquities and hieroglyphs as it stood
in the I 490s. The hieroglyphs had been recognized as the
Egyptian 'sacred letters,' but thanks to the wide acceptance
of the Classical explanation of these carvings as non-
linguistic, allegorical images, they had acquired a trans-
or 'multicultural' aspect that tended to detach them from
their specifically Egyptian and archaeological context,
And, while many elements of Egyptian iconography, not-
ably the pyramid, obelisk, and sphinx, had been recognized
and had been applied to Egyptianizing contexts in works
like the Borgia Osiris cycle, the unifying theories of
scholars like Ficino, Pico, and Annius, combined with the
presence of so many Egyptian monuments in Rome,
assured that these motifs were treated, not as an independ-
ent class of imagery, but as fully integrated elements in
the larger field of antiquity in general.
The treatment of Egyptian elements in the
Hypnerotomachia reflects this tendency, which is fully in
keeping with the 'multicultural' conception of antiquity
that characterizes the work as a whole. This cosmopolitan
atmosphere is established on the most basic level by the
language of the principal text, whose hybrid fusion of
Italian and Latin (with words and spellings introduced
from Greek) is obviously intended to suggest a kind of
syncretic ancient language. 78 There are also the numerous
phrases and inscriptions in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and
'Chaldaean' (Persian), as well as the celebrated faux-
Egyptian hieroglyphs, which lend a distinctly eastern and
'orientalizing' flavor to the work.
This discussion of the language and literary culture of
the Hypnerotomachia brings us perilously close to the contro-
versial issue of its authorship and cultural-regional context,
a problem whose intricacies have dominated scholarly
discussion of the work for the past several decades. In
recent years, the traditional identification of the author
with Francesco Colonna of Venice, which has deep roots
in the Renaissance and Enlightenment traditions and
continues to enjoy considerable support among scholars,
has been challenged by a number of scholars, notably
Maurizio Calvesi, who has argued that a second Francesco
Colonna, Lord of Palestrina, should be identified as the
author. 79 Since the issue of authorship and context is far
from merely 'academic' when it comes to interpreting the
complexities of this work in relation to the literary, anti-
quarian, and artistic culture of the period, I will state here
that I am more convinced by the evidence for a Venetian
(or at least Veneto-Paduan) origin than I am by the
arguments for a Roman authorship and provenance. But,
as we shall see, acceptance of the 'Venetian argument'
does not by any means exclude or diminish the undeniable
fact that the author and illustrator of the Hypnerotomachia
had access to considerable information concerning the
antiquities of Rome.80
Thanks to the proliferation of antiquarian studies, draw-
ings, and ancient texts (printed and otherwise) that had
16 9
become available by the 1490s, the author and illustrator
of the Hypnerotomachia could have acquired most (if not all)
of their antiquarian information at 'second hand' from
antiquarian associates, travelers, reports, and the holdings
of one or more well-stocked libraries. For example, it has
been shown that the author's architectural terminology
and theoretical formulations were derived in large
part from Alberti and Vitruvius, whose works were
readily available in printed editions years before the
Hypnerotomachia was published. 81 There is also some evid-
ence that the author was familiar with Filarete's Trattato,
a point which supporters of the Venetian Fra Francesco's
claim to authorship are fond of observing, since a beauti-
fully illuminated codex containing an abridged Latin
translation of Filarete's work (prepared in Milan c. 1488-9
for the library of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary)
was acquired by the library of his convent at SS. Giovanni
e Paolo in Venice in 1490-2.8.
It has long been recognized that the hybrid language
and 'antiquarian culture' of the Hypnerotomachia share deep
affinities with the Veneto-Paduan tradition of antiquar-
ianism that developed under the influence of the peripat-
etic 'amateur archaeologist' and epigrapher, Cyriacus of
Ancona (c. 1391-c. 1455) and his follower, Felice Feliciano
of Verona (1433-c.1479).83 Cyriacus demonstrated an
interest in the hieroglyphic inscriptions (which he called
'Phoenician letters') on the obelisks and pyramids of Egypt
and Constantinople, and both he and Felice were inclined
to compose 'archaeological rhapsodies' to the pagan gods
in a synthetic personal language that combined elements
of ItaIian, Latin and Greek. 84 As a member of Giovanni
Marcanova's scriptorium in Padua, Felice made exquisite
copies of inscriptions and drawings of monuments (many
of them copied from Cyriacus's notebooks) which were
collected in the famous volumes of Marcanova's
Antiquitates. 85 As has been noted, the imaginary monuments
and inscriptions in the Hypnerotomachia bear a distinct
'family resemblance' to the drawings in the Marcanova
albums, which is particularly evident in the section devoted
to the tombs and epitaphs of the Polyandrion, which takes
on the aspect of a 'fictionalized' Marcanovan sylloge. 86
For Poliphilo's 'material' vocabulary, especially as it
concerns the identification of antique marbles, the author
clearly relied on Pliny the Elder as his principal source. 87
But, although the author-protagonist's enthusiasm for the
textures and colors of marmi antichi could readily be
explained as reflecting a response to the Roman ruins
(and the many later monuments, from early Christianity
to the author's own time, that reused these materials),
it must be said that the 'material culture' of the
Hypnerotomachia, especially as it concerns the taste for multi-
colored marble, appears to be more in keeping with the
coloristic tastes of Quattrocento Venice than it is with
contemporary architecture in Rome. 88 The Venetian taste
170 BRIAN CURRAN
for polychrome marble (especially on the exteriors of
buildings, as so often in the Hypnerotomachia) was rooted in
the Serenissima's deep artistic and architectural debt to
the Byzantine tradition, and was exemplified by the rich
internal and external decoration of the Basilica ofS. Marco
(which included a generous helping of spolia brought to
Venice from the sack of Constantinople in 1204).89 With
its exterior display of columns, scriptures, and panels of
porphyry, granite, alabaster and other 'exotic' stones, and
its interior shimmering with inlaid pavements, marble wall
revetments and golden mosaics, S. Marco established a
taste for material splendor that inspired the builders of
the Arco Foscari (1438-c. 1484/5), the Scala dei Giganti
in the Palazzo Ducale (begun in 1485 and completed in
the early sixteenth century), and the reliquary-like church
of S. Maria dei Miracoli (begun in 1481 and completed
in 1489).90 All of these buildings featured sculptural and
architectural motifs conceived in imitation of the forms
and 'spirit' of antiquity, a notion which, in Venice, included
Byzantine as well as Roman models. 91
Consideration of the purely Egyptological aspects of the
Hypnerotomachia makes it clear that, whoever the author
and illustrator might have been, they were able to draw
on a broad range of archaeological material, including a
comprehensive collection of ancient and contemporary
literary sources, drawings and descriptions of the Egyptian
monuments in Rome, and even, it seems, contemporary
information concerning the monuments in Egypt itself, for
their 'Egyptological' creations. 9• The fundamental impor-
tance of Roman models for the Hypnerotomachia 'antiquities'
has long been recognized, and could hardly be avoided
in an antiquarian work produced anywhere in Italy during
the fifteenth century.93 The possible reliance on material
from Egypt, on the other hand, while not as common,
should also not be considered especially surprising, since
that country was not as unfamiliar during this period as
is often assumed. 94 If the 'Egypt' thesis is accepted, it
would appear to strengthen the case for a Venetian origin
for the work, since among all Italian (and, indeed,
European) centers during this period, Venice had stronger
trade and culture contacts with Egypt than any other.95
We will begin with the hieroglyphic inscriptions that
Poliphilo stops to describe and 'translate' at various points
throughout the narrative (see figures 4 and 5), since they
are probably the most famous Egyptianizing element in
the work, and have certainly attracted the most attention
from scholars.96 As has long been recognized, the distinct
visual appearance of these inscriptions was inspired, with
one notable exception, not by the Egyptian hieroglyphs
that could be seen in Rome, but by 'emblematic' images
of sacrificial and naval objects from the friezes of Roman
temples. 97 The most celebrated friezes of this type in
Rome were the marble fragments installed in the choir
and pulpits of the church of S. Lorenzo fuori Ie mura

Figure 18. Maarten van Heemskerck, View of S. Lorenzojitori Ie mura with
imagesftom the S. Lorenzojriezes (c. 1535) (Berlin, Staat!. Mus. Preussischer
Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, 79D2 =Vo!. I, fo!' 2Ir).
(figure 18).98 The S. Lorenzo marbles were sketched by
many artists during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
a number of whom, including Mantegna, Filipino Lippi,
and Sebastiano del Piombo, adapted them for inclusion
as emblematic ornaments all'antica in their own works. 99
We do not know how or why these friezes were adapted
'hieroglyphs' by the author and illustrator of the
Hypnerotomachia, but Rudolf Wittkower suggested that the
arrangement of the objects in rows resembling 'sentences'
inspired an interpretation of them as 'Roman hieroglyphs'
conceived in imitation of the Egyptian ones (a notion that
is implied by Alberti).'oo But it is intriguing to note that
the location of these friezes on the pulpits of S. Lorenzo
in Rome bears a striking resemblance to the situation of
the 'Columna Osirian tablet' in the Duomo of Viterbo (a
church which is also - coincidentally? - dedicated to
St Lawrence). Since Annius had developed his interpreta-
tion of the Viterbo tablet by 1492-3 at the latest, it is
possible that the 'hieroglyphic' interpretation of the
Roman friezes was influenced by his example. 'o, But it is
equally plausible that the Roman hieroglyphs inspired
Annius to attempt a parallel interpretation of the Viterbo
marble. In any case, as in Viterbo, the 'hieroglyphic'
identification of the Roman marbles appears to have stuck,
since, as late as c. 16 IO, the S. Lorenzo friezes were
published as hieroglyphs in Herwarth von Hohenburg's
Thesaurus HierogfJPhicorum.'OO
In the process of transforming the images from the
friezes into 'hieroglyphic inscriptions,' the artist and author
adapted them rather freely, and combined them with
images and motifs derived from other sources. '03 Among
these, the most familiar is the emblem of the dolphin and
the anchor (see figure 6) which was adopted from an
ancient coin of the emperor Titus and whose meaning
was derived from Suetonius' account of a military motto
of Augustus ('More haste, less speed'). '04 In 1502, this
device was adopted as the typographic mark of his press
by Aldus Manutius. '05
There are also 'syntactical' inventions that apply a sort
of grammar to the hieroglyphic compositions, such as the
formation of 'plurals' by representing an image more than
once (this device is, coincidentally, also employed in 'real'
Egyptian hieroglyphs).106 Certain signs appear to have
been taken from other sources, notably the hieroglyph of
the 'arca' with the eye and the vulture denoting 'the God
of nature,' and the circle denoting 'time' or 'eternity',
which appear to have been derived from Alberti (see
,0
above). 7 But the predominance of 'original' over source-
derived signs suggests that, like Filarete, the author relied
on modern or indirect sources for his hieroglyphic ideas. 108
Among the most imaginative of these 'invented hiero-
glyphs' are the sign of the eye on the sandal sole (expressing
the meaning 'subject to God') and the goose-headed
tankard that signifies the adverbial phrase, 'little by
little.)I09 It should be noted, however, that (in marked
contrast with the tortured, step-by-step readings of Annius)
the significance of each individual sign is not given in the
text, and can be ascertained only by extracting its meaning
from Poliphilo's interpretive sentences. "0 As Iversen has
noted, the intricacies of Poliphilo's 'hieroglyphic method'
are 'generally left up to the intelligence of the reader.""
Given its fundamental 'originality,' we might well specu-
late as to where, and in what context, the author of the
Hypnerotomachia acquired his peculiar take on the hiero-
glyphs. If we accept the Calvesi-Rome-Palestrina thesis,
the influence might be sought in the sphere of Annius of
Viterbo. II2 If we consider the possibility that the Venetian
friar or some countryman of his was the author, there is
the possibility that he was acquainted with the hieroglyphic
'studies' of the Bellunese Franciscan Friar Urbano Bolzanio
della Fosse (1443-1524)."3 Fra Urbano studied theology
in Treviso from 1466 to 1472 (at about the same time that
the Dominican Colonna was there), then came to Venice,
from where, thanks to his employment as personal secret-
ary to the future doge, Andrea Gritti (then stationed in
Constantinople as a merchant and political operative), he
embarked on extensive travels in Greece, Palestine, Arabia,
and Egypt (1473-84)."4 Upon his return, Urbano moved
to Florence, where he was employed by Lorenzo de'
Medici to teach Greek to his son Giovanni, the future
Pope Leo X (1484-9). In 1490, he returned to Venice,
where he opened his own private school of Greek, which
attracted anumber of distinguished pupils and professional
associates. In the mid-1490s Urbano became involved with
the Academy and press of Aldus Manutius, who published
Urbano's Institutiones Graecae grammaticae (a Greek grammar
with Latin text) in 1498. "5
Direct evidence for Urbano's hieroglyphic and
Egyptological studies does not survive, but, fortunately,
his interest in hieroglyphics was inherited (and described)
by his nephew, Pierio Valeriano (I477-I558), whose
Hierogfyphica (I556) was the most elaborate and authoritat-
ive study of the subject produced during the
Renaissance. 116 In the 33rd book of his treatise, dedicated
to the memory of his uncle, Valeriano reconstructs a
'hieroglyphic symposium,' held in Venice around I522, in
which Fra Urbano is presented as the principal speaker
and 'expert."'7 Urbano and his friends bemoan the inad-
equacy of Horapollo for the decipherment of the inscrip-
tions on the obelisks and other Egyptian monuments, and
discuss (not always favorably) some of the hieroglyphs of
the Hypnerotomachia, which are described as 'inventions of
more recent people' in the manner of ancient Egyptians
(unfortunately, Valeriano provides no clue as to the identity
of their inventor). lIB
It is also interesting to note that (again with one
notable exception) the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the
Hypnerotomachia do not contain the sort of theologically
obscure meanings alluded to by philosophers like Ficino
and Pico. Instead, they are limited to epitaphs, dedications,
and cryptic - but by no means esoteric - maxims, such
as 'make haste slowly' or 'trust God to protect you,' that
serve as timely words of wisdom for the protagonist. More
importantly, as an active 'reader' and translator of hiero-
glyphic inscriptions, Poliphilo joins the select company of
Renaissance 'characters' (most notably Annius) who took
the widely held assumption that these signs could commun-
icate their concealed meanings to sensitive members of
the initiated elite to its logical conclusion, and actually
attempted to 'read' them.
Turning to the individual monuments, the obelisk of
'mottled red stone' in the Polyandrion, whose base carries
a hieroglyphic inscription that describes its erection 'by
the Egyptians' in honor of 'the Divine Julius Caesar,
always Augustus, ruler of the whole world,' was clearly
inspired by the Vatican obelisk, although the woodcut
showing the obelisk rising alongside a palm tree (figure I9)
is modeled on the situation of the Capitoline obelisk,
which stood next to a palm tree near the transept of
S. Maria in Aracoeli (see figure 8). 1I 9
More original, indeed so much so that it may stand
for the strangeness of the work as a whole, is the
great elephant of dark stone, 'more black than obsidian'
from whose saddled back rises an obelisk of green
'Lacedaemonian' stone, engraved on three sides with
'beautifully delineated Egyptian characters,' and topped
with a sphere 'of shining and glittering substance' in the
manner of the Roman obelisks (see figure 2).120 In the
woodcut, the obelisk does not so much rest upon but
rather intersects its elephantine base (an aspect which is
clarified when Poliphilo describes the continuation of the
obelisk through the interior of the hollow elephant). The
elephant itself was presumably inspired by Pliny the Elder's
account of the obsidian elephants of Augustus in the
I72 BRIAN CURRAN
Temple of Concord, Rome, although the idea of the
'elephant-caryatid' has roots in medieval art, and had
found more recent expression in the black marble ele-
phants of the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, which could
have provided a direct source of inspiration for the
Hypnerotomachia monument. 121
But what makes the Hypnerotomachia monument especi-
ally intriguing, at least from the Egyptological point of
view, is the fact that the inscription on the obelisk is the
only one in the work that is clearly derived, not from the
Roman or contemporary images that inspired the others,
but from the 'authentic' hieroglyphic inscriptions that
could be seen on the obelisks in Rome. I22 Following the
Egyptian obelisk model, the signs, which include such
more or less Egyptian-looking hieroglyphs as an eagle-like
bird, rows of lines and circles, an eye, and a twisting
serpent, are arranged in a single vertical band. The
Egyptian inspiration is clearest on the lower fragment,
which includes an unmistakable attempt to render a
pharaonic 'cartouche,' the rope-framed hieroglyphic
inscription denoting the name of a pharaoh. Among the
most likely potential models, the squat, flattened shape of
the cartouche, and even some of the (admittedly indistinct)
hieroglyphic forms inside it, bear a close general resemb-
lance to the cartouche of the 'ever-living Caesar,
Domitianus' as it appears on the lower face of the 'Capo
di Bove' obelisk, as drawn by Giuliano da Sangallo around
I5 I 3!r4 (figure 20). 12 3
During the fifteenth century, we recall, this obelisk lay
unburied in the ruins of the Circus of Maxentius on the
Via Appia, where it had been seen (and described) by
such fifteenth-century observers as the Anonimo
Magliabechiano, Poggio Bracciolini, and Filarete. I24
Photographs (and personal observation) of the obelisk in
its present location reveal that the cartouche is not quite
as squat as it is rendered on Sangallo's drawing, although
it is interesting that the engraving in Athanasius Kircher's
Obeliscus Pamphilius (I650) shows a somewhat similar
shape. I25 The fact that both Sangallo's drawing and the
Hypnerotomachia woodcut render the cartouche in this way
suggests the possibility that both artists relied on an earlier
rendition for their interpretations, although the Sangallo
drawing presumably benefited from the artist's personal
knowledge of the monument. Sangallo's drawing also
shows a portion of the deeply carved, double 'outline' that
serves to frame the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the Capo
di Bove obelisk. The obelisk-shaped outline that frames
the hieroglyphs in the upper section of the Hypnerotomachia
obelisk also suggests the influence of the Capo di Bove
obelisk. 126
Sangallo's drawing is one of the earliest surviving 'accur-
ate' copies of a hieroglyphic inscription from the
Renaissance, none of which appears to be dated before
I500.127 Given these circumstances, the Hypnerotomachia
 r

1499).
ii- r (Marqua nd Library, Princeton University, SAPX NE 910 I8C6.
Figure 19· Polyandrion. Hypnerowmachia Poliphili, Venice, 1499, fo1. p.

Figure 20. Fig. 72: Giuliano da Sangallo. The Capo di Bove Obelisk
(Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, Codex Vaticano Barberiniano lat. 4424,
fo!' 70r [detail]).
woodcut may be considered the earliest surviving evidence
for the 'archaeologically correct' rendition of an Egyptian
hieroglyphic inscription, which must have been based on
drawings made in the last decades of the Quattrocento.
In this regard, it is also worth noting that while Poliphilo
is quite willing to present his translations of the
'Romanizing' hieroglyphic inscriptions he encounters
throughout the work, he is content to pass over this more
'authentic' inscription without attempting a more detailed
reading. Indeed, this is the only illustrated hieroglyphic
inscription in the work which is not translated. It would
appear that, in the dream-world of the Hypnerotomachia, as
in the 'real-life' world of Renaissance archaeology, the
decipherment of 'authentic' Egyptian hieroglyphs is some-
thing to be avoided.
'Authentic' Egyptianizing elements are also a feature of
the enigmatic monument in the Gardens of Queen
Eleuterilda (see figure 3) which consists of a three-sided,
solid-gold obelisk, inscribed with Greek and Egyptian
'hieroglyphic' characters, that is supported on a three-
storied base of differently shaped (and colored) stones on
174 BRIAN CURRAN
the backs of three golden figures of Egyptian sphinxes. 128
The nymph Logistica explains this 'most splendid ancient
monument' to Poliphilo as an allegory of the sacred
harmony of the 'infinite three-in-one,' an obvious allusion
to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. 12 9
The 'Trinitarian obelisk' is the only Egyptianizing,
'hieroglyphic' monument in the Hypnerotomachia that is
accorded an explicitly Christian meaning, a circumstance
which inspired Giehlow to point to the influence of Pico
della Mirandola, including his description of the Egyptian
sphinx as a symbol of concealed sacred doctrine. '3° In
particular, Poliphilo's reference to the obelisk as a pyra
would appear to allude to the etymological tradition,
originating in Plato, that the name and form of these
monuments derived from the Greek word pyr, and repres-
ented the 'elemental nature' of flame or fire, and, by
extension, the 'divine wisdom' represented by mysteries
like the doctrine of the Trinity. '3 ' Ficino had developed a
Christianizing interpretation of the hieroglyphs in his
translations of the Hermetica and other Neoplatonic texts,
and even described the Egyptian hieroglyph of the cross,
the signum crucis, as a symbol of the heavenly realm and a
prefiguration of the power it would receive from Christ:
This opinion was either introduced or principally confirmed
by the Egyptians, among whose characters a prominent one
was the cross, which signified in their usage the future life;
and they would engrave this figure on the breast of Serapis.
But I think as follows: What the Egyptians before Christ
thought about the cross was not so much a testimony of the
gifts of the stars, as it was a prophecy of the power that it
was going to receive from Christ. 132
Ficino was also intrigued by the possibility of pagan
prefigurations of the Trinity. '33 But it seems unlikely that
either Ficino or Pico would have ventured quite so far
into the realm of religious syncretism as the author of the
Hypnerotomachia, whose reading of the obelisk has been
considered somewhat pedestrian and even 'patristic' by
some commentators. '34 Here, as elsewhere, the author's
somewhat literal fusion of Christian and pagan symbolism
and ritual functions is part of the elaborate system of
'masking' that permeates the work as a whole. Behind the
nymphs, goddesses and temples of this fantastic dream-
world we seem to glimpse an underlying 'reality' of church,
cloister, and convent. Indeed, the author's rich display of
ecclesiastical and theological culture provides support for
the theory that the author could have been a priest
or friar. 135
It should be pointed out that the illustration of the
Eleuterildan obelisk does not correspond precisely with
the text, since the sphinxes (called 'four-footed reclining
Egyptian monsters with the bodies of lions' in the text)
are described as having three very different faces, (one
bestial, one half-human, one fully human, symbolizing the
three stages of human understanding of the sacred myster-
ies, but are shown with human faces only in the woodcut.
Still, it is remarkable that the illustrator has taken care to
render the characteristic Egyptian pose and the pharaonic
nemes headdress, which is described in the text as 'a linen
veil covering the head, with two labels hanging over the
ears, and the rest covering their necks and backs."36
Finally, in both their appearance and their function as
obelisk/ column-supporting astragals or 'caryatids,' the
Hypnerotomachia sphinxes are, once again, closer in spirit to
the medieval 'Egyptianizing' sphinxes that could be seen
in Rome and its vicinity (see figure 16). Of course, the
Hypnerotomachia sphinxes also bear a general kinship with
the lion-supports of the Campidoglio obelisk (see figure 8)
and Filarete's obelisk-monument (see figure 12), which
were apparently inspired by a medieval belief that the
Vatican obelisk rested on a buried group of bronze lions. 137
Finally, we must consider the most imposing and pains-
takingly described of all the Egyptianizing monuments in
the Hypnerotomachia: the great pyramid-temple topped by
an obelisk, whose investigation by the protagonist domin-
ates the opening section of the work. 138 With its pyramidal
'roof' supported by a four-sided temple structure, this
great edifice has rightly been considered as derived, in
large part, from Pliny the Elder's description of the
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. 139 But there are significant
differences between Pliny's description and the structure
as described and illustrated in the Hypnerotomachia. For
example, Pliny describes the Mausoleum as a structure of
oblong shape, topped by a stepped pyramid of only 24 Figure 21. Pyramid ofCaius Cestius, Rome (18-12BC). Photo: author.
steps, while the Hypnerotomachia pyramid rises from a square
base to form a geometrically perfect, 'diamantine' pyramid
form. 140 This pyramid gradually rises in a series of no less sculpture-supporting pyramids that formed the crowning
than 1400 steps of 'pure Parian marble' to a flat summit, elements on the Arco Foscari (completed 1484/5) in the
where a great cubic block provides the base for the colossal Doge's palace (whose upperworks also featured a number
obelisk of 'red Theban stone, on whose faces, as smooth of obelisk-shaped pinnacles).'44 The author would also
and brightly shining as a mirror, were most excellently presumably have been familiar with the Roman pyramids,
carved Egyptian hieroglyphs."4 1 With its immense size notably the Pyramid of Cestius (see figure 21), which was
(the pyramid alone is described as six stadia wide on each then, as now, remarkably well preserved. But the Cestius
side at the base, and rising five stadia in height - which tomb pyramid is rather steep in its proportions in compar-
comes to around 3666 by 3550 feet), lavish marble and ison with the Hypnerotomachia monument, and, despite a
sculptural decoration, and pronounced stacking of ele- degree of dilapidation, its intact marble casing did not
ments (the visual equivalent, it seems, of 'piling on the provide the sort of stepped exterior described by Poliphilo
superlatives'), the Hypnerotomachia structure is clearly inten- and illustrated in the woodcut. 145
ded to overwhelm all comparisons with the monuments Instead, the perfect shape, gradual angle and immense
of the past, the Mausoleum and the pyramids of Egypt size of Hypnerotomachia pyramid appears to be more in
included. 142 Indeed, Poliphilo compares the building with keeping with the pyramid tombs of Egypt, in particular
the pyramids, the labyrinths of Egypt and Lemnos, the the Great Pyramid of Cheops and its neighbors in the
Mausoleum, the tomb of Ninos, and even to Dinocrates' Giza groUp.146 But what could the author and illustrator
plan to carve the mountain of Athos into a great colossus of the Hypnerotomachia have known about these great
holding a city in his hand, and finds all of them inferior structures, and when (and how) could they have known it?
in conception to this greatest of all ancient buildings. 143 Of course, the author could have read about the
The pyramidal superstructure of the Hypnerotomachia pyramids in any of the by then widely available ancient
temple may also have been inspired by the oblong, curved, sources, such as Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and

175
 ,
Ammianus (most, if not all of which, were presumably
available to him). '47 When Poliphilo describes the precision
with which the exterior masonry, consisting of squared
blocks of 'pure, white Parian marble,' has been set into
place, without the use of mortar, he may be echoing
Herodotus' description of the Great Pyramid as having
been constructed of 'Arabian stone, polished and most
exactly fitted' and 'made like a stairway with tiers, or
steps."48 While the Parian marble fabric of the building
hardly appears to suggest an 'Egyptian' building, it should
be noted that Pliny the Elder describes the porch of the
Egyptian labyrinth as being constructed of this stone (a
circumstance which he finds 'surprising').'49 The national-
ity of the building's architect, Lychas of Libya (which
Poliphilo reads on the base of the obelisk), may also have
been inspired by Herodotus, who reports that the pyramids
had been built in the 'Libyan mountains' on the west
bank of the Nile. 'So As for the inner depths and ascending
staircases of the pyramid temple, they could have been
inspired, at least in part, by the descriptions of ancient
complexes, including the pyramids and labyrinths of
Egypt, that could be found in the pages of many ancient
authors. 'S'
But certain details of both the description and (especi-
ally) the illustration suggest that the author and illustrator
also had access to contemporary descriptions (and perhaps
even drawings) of the Egyptian pyramids. In particular,
the numerous exterior 'steps' and flat summit of the
Hypnerotomachia pyramid (see figure I) seem to be based on
the Egyptian Giza pyramids, which, unlike the tomb of
Cestius, had been stripped of most of their external casing,
leaving the step-like courses and flattened platform-like
summit that are still visible today (compare the sixteenth- Figure 22. The Great Pyramid and Sphinx if Giza, Sebastiano Serlio, Tutte Ie
century illustration, figure 22, discussed in detail below). 'S2 opere d'architettura et prospetiva di Sebastiano Serlio Bolognese, Venice, 1584,
If the Hypnerotomachia was indeed composed in Venice, Libro III, fol. 93r (Marquand Library, Princeton University, SAPX
the author could have obtained information about the N25IO. S 49q).
pyramids from anyone of the innumerable pilgrims,
merchants and other travelers who made the trip to acquired information about the pyramids, whose basic
Alexandria and Cairo from Venice during the fifteenth characteristics were common knowledge in fifteenth-
century. 'S3 In addition to the aforementioned Fra Urbano, century Italy. Indeed, the appearance of the pyramids in
the Venetian Francesco Colonna could have been intro- their traditional, medieval identity as the 'Granaries of
duced to the Friar Felix Fabri of Ulm, a fellow Dominican Joseph' in the thirteenth-century mosaics in the narthex
who sailed from Venice to Jerusalem, Sinai and Egypt in of the basilica of S. Marco is testimony for the Venetians'
the early I480s, and returned to Venice via Alexandria 'visual awareness' of these Egyptian monuments centuries
with a diary full of descriptions of the pyramids and other earlier. 'S6 The pyramids continued to figure in the topo-
monuments ofEgypt.'s4 Friar Fabri's somewhat disapprov- graphical maps of Egypt prepared by Venetian and other
ing description of the 'images of pagan gods' with 'signs European cartographers during the fifteenth and sixteenth
of poetic fiction' (cum signis poeticarum fictionum) on the tombs centuries, and could be considered, along with the Holy
of the Doges in Friar Colonna's own church of Places of Palestine and the marvels of Constantinople,
SS. Giovanni e Paolo makes an interesting comparison Alexandria, and 'Great Cairo,' to be among the more
with the more enthusiastic engagement with antique familiar landmarks of the east during this period. 'S7
imagery in the Hypnerotomachia. 'ss But contact with an Poliphilo's comparison of the obelisk atop the pyramid-
observant traveler like Fabri (which is by no means temple with the obelisks of Alexandria and Babylon (Cairo
provable) is not the only way our author could have or Heliopolis) makes it clear that the author presumed a

I76 BRIAN CURRAN

basic awareness of the most famous Egyptian monuments
on the part of his readers. 158
It comes as no surprise that the first remotely 'accurate'
illustration of the Great Pyramid also emerged from the
Venetian milieu, although some years later than the pub-
lication of the Hypnerotomachia. The description (and illus-
tration) of the pyramid and the Great Sphinx published
in Sebastiano Serlio's Ter;;:;o libro d'architettura (1540, see
figure 22) was derived from an account provided by
Cardinal Marco Grimani, 'gentil'huomo di questa citta di
Venetia,' who visited Egypt when he was patriarch of
Aquileia, and took the opportunity to measure, climb and
explore the interior of the monument. 159 Grimani's meas-
urement of the pyramid's base (in varchi or 'paces' equiva-
lent to three palmi) determined that it formed a perfect
square, 'built entirely of tough live stone' and rising in
'about two hundred and ten' steps of about three and a
half palmi, making it very difficult to climb up to the flat
plane on the summit, which led Grimani to opine that the
.-
/1'
Figure 23. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Prqject for the Re-erection if
the S. Rocco Obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo (1519) (Uffizi, Florence, inv. no.
UA 1232r).
pyramid 'was not pointed' as originally constructed. 160
The interior is described as containing a great stone
'staircase' that rises gradually to the chamber containing
the stone sarcophagus. All of these 'archaeologically cor-
rect' details correspond, at least in a general way, to
Poliphilo's description of the pyramid-temple in the
Hypnerotomachia, and would appear to strengthen the argu-
ment that the conception of this monument was informed,
at least in part, by accounts of the pyramids in Egypt.
In the decades following its publication, the
Egyptianizing and hieroglyphic inventions of the
Hypnerotomachia, which seem so fantastic to contemporary
observers, were accepted in varying degrees as authentic
by a variety of readers; including Erasmus, Rabelais,
Achille Bocchi, and Pierio Valeriano. 161 Even as a;<;tute an
archaeologist as Raphael, whose role in the rediscovery of
Egyptian art is the subject of another paper, was appar-
ently inspired by the fantastic monuments of the
Hypnerotomachia when he devised a project for the
Figure 24- Colonna Missal, Mass if St John the Baptist (c. 1530-8) (John
Rylands University Library, Manchester, England, MS 32, fo!' 79r
[detail]).
re-erection of an obelisk, dug out of the ruins of the
Mausoleum of Augustus in July, 1519, in the nearby
Piazza del Popolo. In the drawing by Antonio da Sangallo
the Younger (figure 23) the obelisk is shown raised on its
base, itself held aloft by a group of four elephant-caryatids
and eight Egyptian sphinxes. 162 This improbable monu-
ment was never realized, owing to the death of both the
artist and his patron, Pope Leo X, although it was reflected
in the sphinx-supported obelisk devised by the illuminator
of the 'Egyptian Page' of the Colonna Missal, c. 1530-8
(figure 24).163
If Raphael's design had, somehow, been brought to
realization, one can hardly imagine the reactions of the
generations of pilgrims who would have confronted this
bizarre concoction as they passed through the busiest
entrance to the city. They might have been forgiven for
imagining that, for one moment, they too had entered
into a dream.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank Professor John Dixon Hunt
and his colleagues and staff in the Department of
Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the
University of Pennsylvania for their generosity and hospit-
ality in granting me the opportunity to present this paper
at the November, 1996 conference. For specific suggestions
and with gratitude for their moral and intellectual support
in general, I would also like to thank John Pinto, Patricia
Fortini Brown, Anthony Grafton, Thomas DaCosta
Kaufmann, Christoph Frommel, Joseph Connors, Joanna
Dougherty, Barbara Lynn-Davis, James Cheney, and
Fabio Barry. This paper is dedicated to the memory of
Iris Cheney.
NOTES
I - For Egyptian and hieroglyphic studies during the Renaissance, see
Karl Giehlow, 'Die Hieroglyphenkunde des Humanismus in der
Allegorie der Renaissance', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorisches Sammlungen des
Allerhlichsten Kaiserhauses, 32 (1915), pp. 1-229; Karl Dannenfeldt, 'Egypt
and Egyptian antiquities in the Renaissance', Studies in the Renaissance, 6
(1959), pp. 7-27; Erik Iversen, The Myth Qj Egypt and its Hieroglyphs in
European Tradition (Copenhagen, 1961), pp. 57-87; Nikolaus Pevsner and
S. Lang, 'The Egyptian Revival', in N. Pevsner, Studies in Art,
Architecture, and Design, Vol. I: From Mannerism to Romanticism (New York,
1968), pp. 2 I 2-35; Siegfreid Morenz, Die Bewegung Europas mit Agypten,
mit einem Beitrag von Martin Kaiser aber Herodots Begegnung mit Agypten
(Zurich and Stuttgart, 1969), pp. 123-54; Maurice Pope, The Story Qj
Archaeological Decipherment (London, 1975), pp. 1-39; RudolfWittkower,
'Hieroglyphics in the early Renaissance,' in R. Wittkower, Allegory and
the Migration Qj Symbols (London, 1977), pp. I 13-28; Patrizia Castelli, I
geroglifici e il mito dell'Egitto nel Rinascimento (F1orence, 1979); Don
Cameron Allen, Mysteriously Meant' The Rediscovery Qj Pagan Symbolism and
Allegorical Interpretation in the Renaissance (Baltimore and London, 1979),
pp. 107-33; Charles Dempsey, 'Renaissance hieroglyphic studies and
Gentile Bellini's Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria', in Ingrid Merkel and
Allen G. Debus, eds, Hermeticism and the Renaissance: Intellectual History and
the Occult in Early Modern Europe (Washington, London, and Toronto,
178 BRIAN CURRAN
1988) pp. 342-65; Sergio Donadoni, Silvio Curto and Anna Maria
Donadoni Roveri, Egyptftom Myth to Egyptology (Milan and Turin, 1990),
PP.40-60; BertrandJaeger, 'L'Egitto Antico alia corte dei Gonzaga (la
Loggia delle Muse al Palazzo Te ed altre testimonianze)', in Cristiana
Morigi Govi, Silvio Curto and Sergio Pemigotti, eds, L'Egitto jUori
dell'Egitto: Dalla riscoperta all'Egittologia (Bologna, 1991), pp. 233-53;
James Stevens Curl, Egyptomania. The Egyptian RevivaL' a Recurring Theme
in the History Qj Taste (Manchester and New York, 1994), pp. 45-73. For
Renaissance archaeology in general, see the classic study of Roberto
Weiss, The Renaissance Discovery Qj Classical Antiquif) (Oxford, 1969, 2nd
edn 1988); and the chronological treatment by Rodolfo Lanciani, Storia
degli scavi di Roma e notizie intorno le collezione romane di antichita, 4 vols,
Rome, 1902-12, 2nd edn, 5 vols (with previously unpublished
material), eds L. Malvezzi Campeggi and M. Rosaria Russo (Rome,
1989-94)'
2 - For responses to Egyptian art in the later Renaissance and Baroque
periods, see Helen Whitehouse, 'Towards a kind of Egyptology: the
graphic representation of Ancient Egypt, 1587-1666', in Elizabeth
Cropper, Giovanna Perini and Francesco Solinas, eds, Documentary
Culture: Florence and Rome ftom Grand-Duke Ferdinand I to Pope Alexander VII
(F1orence, 1992), pp. 63-79. The rediscovery of Egyptian art during the
Renaissance is the principal subject of my doctoral thesis,
'Egyptomania and Egyptian antiquities in Italian Renaissance art and
culture', Princeton University, 1997.
3 - For Egypt and the hieroglyphs in Classical tradition, see Iversen,
The Myth Qj Egypt, pp. 38-56; S. Morenz, Die Bewegung Europas,
pp. 34-105; Liselotte Dieckmann, Hieroglyphics: The History Qj a Literary
Symbol (St Louis, MI, 1970), pp. 1-30; Erik Iversen, 'The hieroglyphic
tradition', in]. R. Harris, ed., The Legacy Qj Egypt, 2nd edn (Oxford,
1971), pp. 170-96; Pieter W. van der Horst, 'The secret hieroglyphs in
classical literature', in]. den Boeft and A. H. M. Kessels, eds, Actus.
Studies in Honour Qj H. L. W. Nelson (Utrecht, 1982) pp. 115-23; Erik
Hornung, Idea into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought, trans.
Elizabeth Bredeck (New York, 1992) pp. 17-36; and E. Iversen, 'Egypt
in classical antiquity: a resume', in Hommages a Jean Leclant, Vol. 3:
Etudes Isiaques (Cairo, 1994), pp. 295-305. The most extensive collection
of the ancient sources (in the original languages) is still to be found in
Theodore Hopfner, ed., Fontes Historiae Religionis Aegyptiacae, 4 vols
(Bonn, 1922-5).
4 - For the early humanist interest in the hieroglyphs, the best account
is still Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 12-40. For Horapollo, see
Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 5-13;]. Maspero, 'Horapollon et la
fin du paganisme egyptien', Bulletin de l'Institut Franfaise d'ArcMologie
Orientale, II (1914), pp. 164-95; George Boas, ed., The Hieroglyphics Qj
Horapollo (New York, 1950, 2nd edn 1993), pp. 3-29; Iversen, Myth Qj
Egypt, pp. 47-9; Dieckmann, Hieroglyphics, pp. 26-30; C.-F. Brunon,
'Signe, figure, langage: les 'Hieroglyphica' d'Horapollon', in Y. Giraud,
ed., L'Embleme a la renaissance (Paris, 1981), pp. 29-47; Garth Fowden,
'The Pagan Holy Man in late antique society', Journal Qj Hellenic Studies,
102 (1982), pp. 33-59; Sandra Sider, 'Horapollo', in F. E. Cranz,
V. Brown and P. O. Kristeller, eds, Catalogus Translationum et
Commentariorum: Medieval and Renaissance Latin Translations and
Commentaries, Vol. VI (Washington, DC, 1986), pp. 15-29; and Grafton
in Boas, The Hieroglyphics Qj Horapollo (1993), pp. xi-xxi.
5 - The best general study of the Egyptian monuments in Rome
remains Anne Roullet, The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments Qj
Imperial Rome (Leiden, 1972); now supplemented by O. Lollio Barberi,
G. Parola and M. P. Toti, Le antichita egiziane di Roma imperiale (Rome,
1995). For the obelisks see Erik Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, Vol. I
(Copenhagen, 1968); Cesare D'Onofrio, Gli obelischi di Roma: storia e
urbanistica di una citta dall' eta antica al XX secolo (Rome, 1992, 3rd edn,
completely revised); and Giovanni Cipriani, Gli obelischi Egizi: Politica e
Cultura nella Roma Barocca (F1orence, 1993).
6 - For the Vatican obelisk, see Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 19-46;
Geza Alfoldy, Der Obelisk atif dem Petersplatz in Rom. Ein historisches
Monument der Antike (Heidelberg, 1990); and D'Onofrio, Gli obelischi di
Roma (1992), PP.97-I85.
7 - For the inscription, see the Corpus inscriptionum latinarum, VI, part I
(Berlin, 1876), no. 882, p. 156. The passage describing the column is
Suetonius, Julius, LXXXV. For discussion, see Iversen, Obelisks in Exile,
I, pp. 20-4. see Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 20-1, with references to
further literature.
8 - For the history and general characteristics of the Capitoline obelisk,
see K. Noehles, 'Die Kunst des Cosmaten und die Idee der Renovatio
Romae', Festschrift Werner Hager ;;um 65 Geburstag (Reck1inghausen, 1966)
pp. 17-37; Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 106-14; R. E. Malmstrom,
'The twelfth-century church of S. Maria in Capitolio and the
Capitoline obelisk', Riimisches Jahrbuch flir Kunstgeschichte, 16 (1976),
pp. 3-16; D'Onofrio, Gli obelischi di Roma (1992), pp. 61-81; and Ka~a
Lembke, Das Iseum Campense in Rom: Studie uber den Isiskult unter Domitian
(Heidelberg, 1994) pp. 204-5, nO·50.
9 - See Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 109- I 14; Elisabeth Blair
MacDougail, ~ circus, a wild man and a dragon: family history and
the Villa Mattei', Journal if the Sociery if Architectural Historians, 42 (1983),
pp. 121-30; and C. Benocci, 'L'obelisco di Villa Celimontana', DUrbe,
n.s·5 (1987), pp. 5-21.
10 - For the S. Macuto obelisk, see Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I,
pp. 101-5; Roullet, Egyptian Monuments, pp. 74-5, no. 74; D'Onofrio, Gli
obelischi di Roma (1992), pp. 29-60; and Lembke, Das Iseum Campense,
p. 20 3, no. 49.
I I - ~onimo MagJiabechiano', Tractatus de rebus antiquis et situ urbis
romae (c. 1410-15), see Cesare D'Onofrio, ed., Vtsitiamo Roma mille anni
fa: La cittO, dei Mirabilia (Rome, 1988), p. 152. In this location, the
obelisk was sometimes known as the 'sepulchre of Brutus,' see Iversen,
Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 102-3; D'Onofrio, Gli obelischi di Roma (1992),
PP·33-54·
12 - See Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 103-5; D'Onofrio, Gli obelischi
di Roma (1992), pp. 54-60.
13 - For the Pantheon lions, see Giuseppe Botti and Pietro Romanelli,
Le Sculture del Museo Egizio (Vatican City, 1951), pp. 14-18, no. 26-27;
136; Roullet, Egyptian Monuments, pp. 131-2, no. 273-4; and Lembke,
Das Iseum Campense, pp. 223-4.
14 - For this obelisk, now generally known as the 'Pamphilian', see
Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 76-92; and D'Onofrio, Gli obelischi di
Roma (1992), pp. 288-301.
15- See Rudolf Preimesberger, 'Obeliscus Pamphilius: Beitriige zu
Vorgeschichte und Ikonographie des Vierstrtlmebrunnes auf Piazza
Navona', Munchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kuns~ 25 (1974), pp. 77-162.
16 - The presentation to Nicholas V is recorded by Matteo Palmieri,
'De temporibus suis', ed. Joseph Tartinius, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores,
Vol. I, ed. L. Muratori (florence, 1748), col. 24 I. For discussion of the
date and context of the treatise, see Cecil Grayson, 'The composition
of L. B. Alberti's "Decem libri de re aedificatoria"', Munchner Jahrbuch
der Bildenden Kunst, I I (1960), pp. 152-61. For the text, see Giovanni
Orlandi, ed., Leon Battista Alberti, L'Architettura (De re aedificatoria), with
introduction and notes by Paolo Portoghesi, 2 vols (Milan, 1966); and
J. Rykwert, N. Leach and R. Tavernor, ed., Leon Battista Alberti, On
the Art if Building in Ten Books (Cambridge, 1988).
17 - Leon Battista Alberti, ed. De re aedificatoria, VIII. 4; see Rykwert
et aL, On the Art if Building, pp. 256-7.
18 - Alberti, De re aedificatoria, VIII. 4; On the Art if Building, p. 257.
19 - For Alberti's interpretation of hieroglyphs, see Dieckmann,
Hieroglyphics, pp. 32-4; Wittkower, 'Renaissance hieroglyphic studies', in
Allegory and the Migration if Symbols, pp. 117-18; and Claudio Finzi,
'Leon Battista Alberti: Geroglifiche e gloria', in C. M. Govi, S. Curto
and S. Pernigotti, eds, DEgitto foori dell' Egitto: Dalla riscoperta all'
Egittologia (Bologna, 1991), pp. 205-8.
20 - Diodorus, III. 3. 5; Apuleius, Metamorphoses, Xl. 22. Comparable
statements about the 'exclusivity' of the hieroglyphs are found in
Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 10 (354e) and other Greek sources; see
van der Horst, 'The secret hieroglyphs', pp. 115-18.
2 I - For the tradition of 'concealed wisdom' in the Renaissance, see
the classic study by E. H. Gombrich, 'leones Symbolicae: philosophies
of symbolism and their bearing on art', in Symbolic Images: Studies in the
Art if the Renaissance II (New York, 1972, 2nd edn, 1978), pp. 123-95.
22 - RevdJohn Parker, trans., The Celestial and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy if
Dionysius the Areopagite (London, 1894), p. 18.
23 - For Ambrogio's translation of Dionysius, see Charles L. Stinger,
Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari (1386-1 439) and
Christian Antiquiry in the Italian Renaissance (Albany, 1977), pp. 158-62.
24 - Ammianus Marcellinus, XVII. 4. 8- II.
25 - Hermes Trismegistus, Asclepius, 24; see Brian P. Copenhaver, ed.,
Hermetica.· The Greek 'Corpus Hermeticum' and the Latin 'Asclepius' in a new
English Translation (Cambridge, 1992), p. 81. The possible influence of
the Asclepius on this passage was suggested to me by Anthony Grafton.
Alberti certainly knew the text, since he cites 'the most ancient writer
Hermes' on the shared origin of art and religion (Asclepius, 23) in his
treatise on painting, De Pictura, II. 27 (1435); and again, on the same
point, in De re aedificatoria, VII. 16; cf. Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde',
P·31.
26 - Christian references in Lactantius, Divinae Institutiones, VII. 15. 10;
Augustine, De civitate Dei, VIII. 23.
27 - For these developments see Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde',
pp. 138-59; Ludwig Volkmann, Biltierschriften tier Renaissance: Hieroglyphik
und Emblematik in ihren Be;;iehungen und Fortwirkung (Leipzig, 1923); Mario
Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery (Rome, 1939, 2nd edn, 1964);
Daniel Russell, 'Emblems and hieroglyphics: some observations on the
beginnings and nature of emblematic forms', Emblematica, I (1986),
pp. 227-39; and Elizabeth See Watson, Achille Bocchi and the Emblem Book
as Symbolic Form (Cambridge, 1993).
28 - The medal illustrated here is in the National Gallery, Washington
DC, Kress Collection, A-278.IB. For discussion see Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', PP.35-7; Kurt Badt, 'Drei plastiche Arbeiten
von Leon Battista Alberti', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in
Floren;;, 7 (1958), pp. 78-87; Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries if the
Renaissance (New York, 1958, rev. edn 1968), pp. 230-5; Renee Watkins,
'L. B. Alberti's emblem, the winged eye, and his name, Leo',
Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Floren;;, 9 (1960), pp. 256-8;
Mark Jarzombek, On Leon Baptista Alberti: His Literary and Aesthetic
Theories, (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1989), pp. 63-65; Laurie
Schneider, 'Leon Battista Alberti: Some Biographical Implications of
the Winged Eye', Art Bulletin, 72 (1990), pp. 261-70; Christine Smith in
Henry A. Millon and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, eds, The
Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo: The Representation if Architecture
(Venice, 1994), PP.453-5, nos. 40-2; Joseph R. Bliss and Dougla~
Lewis, in Stephen K. Scher, ed., The Currency if Fame: Portrait Medals if
the Renaissance (Washington, DC and New York, 1994) pp. 41-3, no. 3,
375-6; L. Syson and G. Gentilini, inJoseph Rykwert and Anne Engel,
eds, Leon Battista Alberti (Mantua and Milan, 1994); PP.474-5, nos. 72-3.
29 - Smith, in Millon and Lampugnani, The Renaissance, pp. 454-5,
no. 4 I, gives the most extensive summary of previous readings and
suggested sources for the emblem and the motto (Cicero, Tusculan
Disputations, II. I I. 26; Virgil, Aeneid, rv. 543, etc.).
30 - D. Marsh, ed., Leon Battista Alberti, Dinner Pieces: A Translation if
the 'Intercenales' (Binghamton, 1987), p. 213; see G. Mancini, Opera inedita
et pauca separatim impressa di Leon Battista Alberti (florence, 1890),
pp.229-30.
31 - Thus Roberto Weiss's somewhat misleading remark, in The
Renaissance Discovery if Classical Antiquiry (1988), p. 156, that, 'in the field
of epigraphy Egyptian hieroglyphs could scarcely have aroused less
interest.'
32 - Alberti's archaeological interest in obelisks is demonstrated by his
likely involvement in the Vatican obelisk project of Nicholas V (see
179
 below) and his role in the rediscovery of one of the obelisks buried in
the Circus Maxirnus; see the discussions of Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 30-1; and Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 60,
67-9·
33 - On this point, see Brian Curran and Anthony Grafton, 'A
fifteenth-century site report on the Vatican obelisk', Journal qfthe
Warburg and Gourtauld Institutes, 58 (1995), pp. 234-48.
34 - The drawing illustrated here is from Giovanni Marcanova's
Q!faedam antiquitatumfragmenta (Padua, 1465), Princeton University
Library MS Garrett 158, fol. 6v. For discussion, see Curran and
Grafton, 'Fifteenth-century site report', p. 237. For the machines
devised to move obelisks in the fifteenth century, see Giustina Scaglia,
'Drawings for machines for architecture from the early Quattrocento in
Italy', Journal qfthe Sociery qf Architectural Historians, 25 (1966),
pp. 90-1 14, esp. pp. 103-10; W. Oechslin, 'La fama di Aristotele
Fioravanti, ingegnere e architetto', Arte Lombarda, n.s.44-45 (1976),
pp. 103-20; A Carugo, 'Gli Obelischi e Ie macchine nel Rinascirneto'
in Domenico Fontana, Della trasportatione dell' Obelisco Vaticano (Rome,
1590), ed. A Carugo (Milan, 1978), pp. xxi-Ix, lx-lxxx.
35 - Gianozzo Manetti, Vita Nicholai summa pontificis (c. 1455); printed in
L. Muratori, ed., Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, III. 2 (Milan, 1734), col. 934;
translation in Torgil Magnuson, 'The project of Nicholas V for
rebuilding the Borgo Leonino in Rome', Art Bulletin, 36 (1954),
pp. 89-1 15, esp. P.93; c£ T. Magnuson, Studies in Roman Q!fattrocento
Architecture (Rome, 1958), PP.356-7. For Nicholas V's urban and
architectural projects, see Georg Dehio, 'Die Bauprojekte Nikolaus V
und Leon Battista Alberti, 'Repertoriumfiir Kunstwissenschqft, 3 (1880)
pp. 241-57; Torgil Magnuson, 'The project of Nicholas V'; Magnuson,
Studies in Roman Q!fattrocento Architecture (Rome, 1958), pp. 55-214; Carrol
W. Westfall, In This Most Perfect Paradise: Alberti, Nicholas V, and the
invention qf conscious urban planning in Rome, 1447-1455 (University Park,
PA, and London, 1974), pp. 174-9; Charles Burroughs, 'Below the
angel: an urbanistic project in the Rome of Pope Nicholas V,' Journal qf
the Warburg and Gourtauld Institutes, 45 (1982), pp. 94-124; Burroughs, 'A
planned myth and a myth of planning: Nicholas V and Rome,' in
Ramsay, Rome and the Renaissance, pp. 197-207; Charles R. Mack,
'Nicholas V and the rebuilding of Rome: reality and legacy,' in Helmut
Hager and Susan Scott Munshower, eds, Light on the Eternal Giry: Recent
Observations and Discoveries in Roman Art and Architecture (University Park,
1987); Manfredo Tafuri, 'Cives esse non licere: the Rome of
Nicholas V and Leon Battista Alberti: elements toward a historical
revision', Harvard Architectural Review, 6 (1987), pp. 61-75; and Charles
Burroughs, From Signs to Design: Environmental Process and Riform in Early
Renaissance Rome (Cambridge, MA and London, 1990).
36 - See William B. Parsons, Engineers and Engineering in the Renaissance
(Cambridge, MA and London, 1939, rev. edn, 1968) pp. 155-73;
Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, pp. 27-44; D'Onofrio, Gli obelischi di Roma
(1992), pp. 137-85.
37 - Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale, ms. Magliabecchianus II. IV. 140
(dated 1465), fo!' 102V; see John R. Spencer, trans., Filarete's Treatise on
Architecture, Being the Treatise fry Antonio di Piero Averlino, known as Filarete, 2
vols (New Haven and London, 1965), I, p. 180, II, fol. 102V; and
Antonio Averlino, detto n Filarete, Trattato di Architettura, 2 vols, ed.
Anna Maria Finoli and Liliana Grassi (Milano, 1972), p. 390.
38-For the text, see Spencer, Treatise, I, pp. 179-181; Finoli and
Grassi, Trattato, pp. 389-9 I .
39 - Spencer, Treatise, I, pp. 6-16; Finoli and Grassi, Trattato, I,
pp. 13-43; and see the discussion ofJohn Onians, 'Alberti and Filarete:
a study in their sources,' Journal qf the Warburg and Gourtauld Institutes, 34
(197 1), pp. 96- 114, esp. pp. 104-5.
40 - Spencer, Treatise, I, p. 7; Finoli and Grassi, Trattato, I, p. 16.
41 - Alberti, De re aedi/icatmia, VI. 3, VIII. 3; c£ On the Art qf Building,
pp. 157-9, 250. For Filarete, see Spencer, Treatise, I, p. 187 Finoli and
Grassi, Trattato, I, p. 407. Among Alberti's sources, Herodotus, II.
180 BRIAN CURRAN
124-8; Diodorus, I. 64; and Pliny, N. H, XXXVI. 16.75; condemn the
pyramids as monuments to tyranny and luxury, etc.
42 - Spencer, Treatise, I, pp. 157-93; Finoli and Grassi, Trattato,
PP·35 1-4 18 .
43 - For Filarete's architectural thought, see Howard Saalman, 'Early
Renaissance architectural theory and practice in Antonio Filarete's
Trattato di Architettura', Art Bulletin, 41 (1959), pp. 113-37; Onians,
'Alberti and Filarete: a study of their sources', Journal qf the Warburg and
Gourtauld Institutes, 34 (1971), pp. 96-1 14; S. Lang, 'Sforzinda, Filarete
and Filelfo', Journal qfthe Warburg and Gourtauld Institutes, 35 (1972),
pp. 391-7; and Hanno-Walter Kruft, History qf Architectural Theory From
Vitruvius to the Present (Princeton, 1994), PP.51-5.
44 - Florence, ms. Magliabecchianus II. IV. 140, fol. 87r-87v; Spencer,
Treatise, pp. 151-52; Finoli and Grassi, Trattato, PP.334-5.
45 - Florence, ms. Magliabecchianus II. IV. 140, fol. 87r; Spencer,
Treatise, I, p. 152; Finoli and Grassi, Trattato, PP.334-5. Note, however,
that Spencer's translation of 'anguilla' as 'obelisk' is an error. The
correct translation is 'eel,' as in Dempsey, 'Renaissance hieroglyphic
studies', p. 354.
46 - For Filelfo, see C. de' Rosmini, Vita di Francesco File?fo da Tolentino,
3 vols (Milan, 1808); and Diana Robin, Francesco Filelfo in Milan
(Princeton, 1991).
47 - For Filelfo, Horapollo, and hieroglyphs, see Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 19-21. For Filelfo's influence in Filarete's
treatise, see Onians, 'Alberti and Filarete', pp. 105-13.
48 - Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, II. 103; cf. Finoli and Grassi, Trattato,
p. 335, note 4·
49 - Spencer, Treatise, I, p. 155; Finoli and Grassi, Trattato, P.342.
50 - The most recent English edition is Copenhaver, Hermetica (1992),
see the full citation in note 24. For the historical background of
Hermes and the Hermetica, see Lynn Thorndike, A History qf Magic and
Experimental Science, Vol. I (New York, 1923), pp. 287-92; Walter Scott,
ed., Hermetica: The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings which contain Religious or
Philosophic Teachings ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, 4 vols (London,
1924-36), I, pp. I-I I I; A:J. Festugiere, La revelation d'Hermes Trismegiste,
4 vols (Paris, 1950-4); Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic
Tradition (Chicago and London, 1964), pp. 1-19; Erik Iversen, Egyptian
and Hermetic Doctrine (Copenhagen, 1984); and Garth Fowden, The
Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge,
1986).
5 I - Ficino's translation is printed in Fieino, Opera omnia, 2 vols
(continuous pagination) (Basel, 1576, reprinted Turin, 1959), II. 2,
pp. 1836-68 (followed by the Asclepius).
52 - For Fieino's Hermetic studies, and Renaissance Hermeticism in
general, see Karl Dannenfeldt, 'The Renaissance and pre-classical
civilizations', Journal qfthe History qf Ideas, 13 (1952), pp. 435-49; Yates,
Giordano Bruno, pp. 12-43 and ff.; Wayne Shumaker, The Occult Sciences
in the Renaissance (Berkeley, 1972), pp. 201-51; Brian P. Copenhaver,
'Iamblichus, Synesius and the Chaldaean Oracles in Marsilio Ficino's
"De Vita Libri Tres": hermetic magic or Neoplatonic magic?' inJames
Hankins,John Monfasi and Frederick Purnell,Jr, eds, Supplementum
Festivium: Studies in Honor qf Paul Oskar Kristeller (Binghamton, 1987),
pp. 441-55; Brian Copenhaver, 'Hermes Trismegistus, Proclus, and the
question of a philosophy of magic in the Renaissance', in Merkel and
Debus, Hermetism and the Renaissance (1988), pp. 79-1 10; B. Copenhaver,
'Natural magic, hermetism, and occultism in early modern science', in
David C. Lindberg and Robert S. Westman, eds, Reappraisals qfthe
Scientific Revolution, Cambridge, 1990, pp. 26 I -30 I; and M. J. B. Allen,
'Marsilio Fieino, Hermes Trismegistus and the Corpus Hermeticum', in
John Henry and Sarah Hutton, eds, New Perspectives on Renaissance
Thought (London, 1990), pp. 38-47.
53 - For the figure of Hermes on the pavement, see R. H. H. Cust, The
Pavement Masters qf Siena (London, 1901), pp. 22-3; Scott, Hermetica, I,
pp. 32-3, note 32; Iversen, Myth qf Egypt, PP.42-3; Yates, Giordano
Bruno, pp. 42-3; and Bruno Santi, The Marble Pavement qf the Cathedral qf
Siena (florence, 1988), pp. 13-14.
54 - The phrase concerning 'Laws and letters' goes back to Cicero, De
nat. deor., lll. 22; quoted by Lactantius, Div. Inst., l. 6. Hermes'
inclusion among the Sibyls is also indebted to Lactantius, Div. Inst., l.
6; IV. 6.
55 - 'Deus omnium creatorlsecum deum fecit/visibilem et hunclfecit
primum et soluml quo oblectatus est/valde amavit proprium/filum qui
appellatur/sanctum verbum,' cf. Asclepius, l. 8; and Lactantius, Div.
Inst., IV. 6. See Yates, Giordano Bruno, pp. 42-3; Copenhaver, Hermetica,
P·71.
56 - Pico's source was probably Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, IX (354C),
although Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, v. 5. 31, repeats this
explanation of the sphinx almost verbatim.
57 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, De hominis dignitate, in Eugenio
Garin, ed., Giovanni Pieo della Mirandola, De hominis dignitate, Heptaplus, De
ente et uno, e seritti vari (florence, 1942), p. 156; trans. Elizabeth
Livermore Forbes, in E. Cassirer, P. O. Kristeller andJ. H. Randall,
Jr, eds, The Renaissance Philosophy qf Man (Chicago and London, 1948),
p. 250; and Charles Glenn Wallis, in Wallis, P. J. W. Miller and
D. Carmichael, Pico della Mirandola, On the Dignity qf Man, On Being and
the One, Heptaplus (New York and London, 1985) p. 30. Pico expanded
on this theme in his Commento on the Canzone of Girolamo Beniveni,
where he compares the Egyptians' 'secret wisdom' to the concealed
doctrines of Dionysius the Areopogate and the Pythagoreans; see
Eugenio Garin, ed., De hominis dignitate, pp. 580-1; and Sears Jane,
trans., Commentary on a Canzone qf Beniveni by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
(New York, Berne, and Frankfurt am Main, 1985), pp. 169-70.
58 - For the Borgia Apartment, see F. Ehrle and H. Stevenson, Gli
ciffreschi nell' Appartamento Borgia del Palazzo Vaticano (Rome, 1897);
Corrado Ricci, Pintoricchio, His life, Work and Times, trans. F. Simmonds
(London, 1902), pp. 86-120; Federico Hermanin, VAppartamento Borgia
in Vaticano (Rome, 1934); Fritz Sax!, 'The Appartamento Borgia', in
F. Sax!, Lectures, Vol. I (London, 1957), pp. 174-88; D. Redig de
Campos, Wanderings Among Vatican Paintings (Milan, 1973), pp. 23-42;
J. B. Reiss, 'Raphael's Stanze and Pinturicchio's Borgia Apartment',
Source, 3 (1984). PP.57-67; Claudia Cieri Via, 'Mito, allegoria e
religione nell'appartamento Borgia', in Anna Cavallaro, ed., Le arti a
Rome da Sisto IVa Giulio II (Rome, 1985), pp. 77-104; Sabine Poeschel,
'Age Itaque Alexander: das appartamento Borgia und di Erwartungen
an Alexander VI', RiimischeJahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 25 (1989),
pp. 12 9- 65·
59 - The iconography of the Osiris cycle is discussed by Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 44-6; Sax!, 'Appartamento Borgia',
pp. 177-88 (expanding on Giehlow's investigation); N. Randolph Parks,
'On the meaning of Pinturicchio's Sala dei Santi', Art History, 2 (1979),
pp. 291-317; Paola Mattiangeli, 'Annio de Viterbo inspiratore di cicli
pittorici', in G. Baffoni and P. Mattiangeli, Annio da Viterbo: Documenti e
ricerche, Vol. I (Rome, 1981), pp. 257-303; C. Cieri Via, 'Mito, allegoria
e religione', pp. 88-98; and Poeschel, 'Age Itaque Alexander',
PP·139- 64·
60 - For these sphinxes, carved in 1215-32 by the Vassalletto family,
see Edward Hutton, The Cosmati: The Roman Marble Workers qf the XIIth
and XIIth Centuries (London, 1950), pp. 10, 39, 46, pI. 7b; Roullet,
Egyptian Monuments, PP.7-8, fig. I; and Peter C. Claussen, Magistri
doctissimi Romani: Die riimischen Marmorkiinstler des Mittelalters (Stuttgart,
1987), pp. 130-31, figs 165, 170.
61 -Annius' influence on the cycle was first proposed by Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', PP.40-6; followed by Sax!, 'Appartamento
Borgia', pp. 186-7; and Dannenfeldt, 'Late Renaissance interest',
pp. 90-1. More recently, Parks, 'On the meaning of Pinturicchio's
"Sala", and especially Baffioni and Mattiangeli', in Annio da Viterbo:
Documenti e ricerche, I (1981), have established his influence on the cycle
beyond a reasonable doubt.
62 - For Annius, see Roberto Weiss, 'Traccia per una biografia di
Annio da Viterbo', Italia mediovale e umanistica 5 (1962), pp. 425-41;
F. N. Tigerstedt, 'Ioannes Annius and Graecia Mendax', in
C. Henderson, ed., Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies in Honor qf
Berthold Louis Ullman, Vol. II (Rome, 1964), pp. 293-310; Weiss,
Renaissance Discovery, PP.93-6, ll9-20, 125-6, 164-5; Walter Stephens,
'Berosus Chaldaeus: counterfeit and fictive editors of the early sixteenth
century', PhD thesis, Cornell University, 1979, pp. 1-208;
W. Stephens, 'De historia gigantum: theological anthropology before
Rabelais', Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought, and
Religion, 40 (1984), PP.43-89; W. Stephens, Giants in Those Do,ys: Fo[k[ore,
Ancient History, and Nationalism (Lincoln, NE and London, 1989),
PP.58-138; C. R. Ligota, 'Annius ofViterbo and historical method',
Journal qfthe Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 50 (1987), pp. 44-56;
A. Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship
(Princeton, 1990), pp. 48-68, 100-18; and A. Grafton, 'Invention of
traditions and traditions of invention in Renaissance Europe: the
strange case of Annius ofViterbo', in Anthony Grafton, DifCnders qfthe
Text: The Traditions qf Scholarship in an Age qf Science, 1450-1800
(Cambridge, MA and London, 1991), pp. 76-103.
63 - My notes are to the first edition, Commentaria Fratris Ioannis Annii
Viterbensis ordinis praedicator, theologiae prqflssoris super opera diversorum
auctorum de Antiquitatibus loquentorum (Rome, Eucharius Silber, 1498); and
the 1552 version, Berosi sacerdotis chaldaici, antiquitatum Italiae ac totius orbis
libri Commentariis Joannis Annii Viterbensis ... , 2 vols (Antwerp, 1552).
64 - The story is told in the Drftoratio Berosi Chaldaica, in Commentaria
(1498), fol. N viii-Yv; Berosi sacerdotis (1552), pp. 35-209. See Stephens,
Giants, pp. I I 1-35, for a summary. For the medieval identification of
Janus and Noah, which was associated with the writings of 'Berosus' as
early as the twelfth century, and which Annius derived from the
thirteenth century Speculum regum of Godfrey ofViterbo (ll25-92), see
Stephens, Giants, pp. 109-10; and Marie Tanner, The Last Descendant qf
Aeneas: The Hapsburgs and the Afythic Image qfthe Emperor (New Haven and
London, 1993), pp. 54-9,87-90.
65 - See Annius/'Berosus', Commentaria (1498), fol. Piiir-Pvv
(pp. 215-20); Berosi sacerdotis (1552), pp. 66-71; see Stephens, Giants,
PP·134-5·
66 - For the lineage and identity of Hercules Libyusl Aegyptus, see
Annius, Commentaria (1498), fol. Piiir-Pvv (pp. 215-20); Berosi sacerdotis
(1552), pp. 67-8, 70-5; etc.
67 - Annius/'Berosus', Commentaria (1498), fol. Rivv-Yi (pp. 242-94);
Berosi sacerdotis (1552), pp. 108-79; summarized by Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 40-2; and Stephens, Giants, pp. 134-5.
68 - Annius' Farnese genealogy was apparently detailed in his De
Viterbii viris et factis illustribis, written c. 149 I and dedicated to Cardinal
Ranuccio Farnese. The original is lost, but fragments survive in the
letters of Alessandro Farnese, see A. Frugoni, ed., 'Carteggio
umanistico di Alessandro Farnese, dal cod. GL. Kgl. S. 2125,
Copenhagen)', in Nuova collezione di testi umanistici inediti e rari, Vol. VIII,
(florence, 1950), pp. 61-4; cf. Roberto Weiss, 'An unknown epigraphic
tract by Annius of Viterbo', in C. P. Brand et al., Italian Studies Presented
to F. R. Vincent (Cambridge, 1962), pp. 101-20, esp. pp. 102, 106, note
15; Weiss, Renaissance Discovery, p. 126, note 2; and Mattiangeli, 'Annio
da Viterbo', pp. 266-8. The theory of Annius' Borgia genealogy was
advanced by Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', PP.44-6; and has been
developed by Sax!, 'Appartamento Borgia', pp. 183-8; Weiss, 'Traccia
per una biografia', PP.434-5; and Mattiangeli, 'Annio da Viterbo',
pp.260-9·
69 - For 'mythical genealogy' in the medieval and Renaissance periods,
see Roberto Bizzocchi, 'Farnilae Romanae Antiche e Moderne', in
Rivista storica Italiana, 103 (1991), pp. 355-97; and Marie Tanner, Last
Descendant qf Aeneas (New Haven and London, 1993).
70 - For discussion of Annius' 'archaeological' activities see Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', PP.42-5; Roberto Weiss, 'Unknown epigraphic
tract', pp. 101-20; Weiss, Renaissance Discovery, pp. 114, 119-20, 125-6,
181
 154, 164-5, Stephens, 'Berosus Chaldaeus', pp. 155-76; Adriana
Emiliozzi, Il Museo Civico di Viterbo: Storia delle raccolte archeologiche (Rome,
1986), pp. 19-36.
7 I - I. Faldi, Museo Civico di Viterbo: Dipinti e sculture dal Medioevo al XVII
secolo (Viterbo, 1955), pp.60-1 (no. 38); Weiss, 'Unknown epigraphic
tract', p. 119, note 53; Mattiangeli, 'Annio da Viterbo', PP.296-302;
Emiliozzi, n Museo Civico di Viterbo, pp. 29-31; Donadoni, Egypt.from
Myth, PP.49-52.
72 - Annius, De marmoreis Volturrhenis tabulis (1492-3), ed. Weiss,
'UnknoWII epigraphic tract', pp. 107-20. esp. pp. 114-15; cf. Annius,
Commentaria (1498), fol.Aiiiv-Aivr (pp. 4-5), fir-fiiiv (pp. 371-6); Berosi
sacerdotis (1552), pp. 380-90.
73 - Annius, Berosi sacerdotis (1552), pp. 380-90; Macrobius, Saturnalia, I.
21. 12. Annius' 'translation' is examined in detail by Mattiangeli,
'Annio da Viterbo', pp. 297-302; and less extensively by Stephens,
'Berosus Chaldaeus', pp. 167-70.
74 - Diodorus, I. 27. 3-6. Annius used Poggio Bracciolini's Latin
translation of Diodorus's first five books, which appeared in a printed
edition in 1472. For the model, see Poggio, Diodori Siculi Historiarum
priscarum libri VI a Poggio in Latinum Traducti (Venice, 1476), fol. P. 12V.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Diodorus' 'translations'
were considered genuine enough to be excerpted in one of the earliest
printed collections of antique inscriptions, Petrus Appianus' Inscriptiones
Sacrosanctae Vetustatis, Non illae Qyidem Romanae, sed Totius Jere Urbis summo
studio as maximus impensis Terra Marique conquisitae ftliciter incipiunt,
Ingolstadt, 1534, p. cxxxvi.
75 - Annius of Viterbo, 'Osiriana Aegyptia Tabula', in Berosi sacerdotis
(1552), p. 380: 'Maiores nostri, in templo olim Herculis, nunc divi
Laurentii, ut semper ante oculos nostros aeterna vetustatis huius urbis
memoria teneretur, pro rostris posuit columnam. i. tabulam
alabastrinam. Osiriani triumphi monumentum, avibus, & animalibus &
capitibus & arboris, id est, sacris Aegyptiis literis excisam, de quibus
saepe authores scribunt. Et Plinius in N aturali Historia has inquit quae
vides effigies. Aegyptiae sacrae literae sunt. In hac itaque columna est
spatium, in cuius medio est truncus et arboris quercus instar sceptri
multiplicis, in quorum sceptrorum summo duo rami circulum faciunt
instar sceptri multiplicis, quae effigies est propria Osiridis, ut ait
Xenophon. Quod & Macrobius in primo Saturnalia confiImat, dicens,
Osirim exprimentes Aegyptii sacris literis insculpunt sceptrum, inque
eo speciem oculi exprimunt, et hos signo monstrant Osirim. Ponuntur
autem in hoc trunco arboris non unum, sed plura sceptra, quia non in
una, sed omni parte orbis imperavit, ut Diodorus scribit .. .'; and
p. 389: 'Sum Osiris rex, qui evocatus ab Italis contra oppressores Italici
imperii festinus occurri, ... Sum Osiris, qui docui Italos arare, serere,
putare, vinitare, vindemiare et vinum conficere et eis duos reliqui
custodes imperii mari et terra nepotes meos.'
76 - For the date of the original components, see Faldi, Museo Civico di
Viterbo, pp. 60- I; Weiss, 'UnknoWII epigraphic tract', p. I 19, note 53
(who attributes the assembling of the pieces to Annius); Mattiangeli,
'Annio da Viterbo', pp. 297-8; and Emiliozzi, Il Museo Civico di Viterbo,
pp. 29-31. A pair of similar white marble profile busts, dated by
inscription to 1272, were installed on the main pulpit in the Duomo at
Ravello; see Carla Guglielmi Faldi, Il Duomo di Ravello (Naples, 1974),
P.5, fig. I.
77 - The 'Osirian tablet' and two other Annian 'discoveries', the
so-called 'Tabula Cybelica Maeonica' and the 'Decree of Desiderius',
were installed in the Palazzo Comunale ofViterbo in 1581-7. The
inscription, added in 1587, reads 'OSIRIDIS VICTORIAM IN
GIGANTES UTTERIS HIEROGLYPHICIS IN HOC
ANTIQUISSIMO MARMORE INSCRIPTAM EX HERCULIS
OUM NUNC DIVI LAURENTII TEMPLO TRANSLATAM AD
CONSERVAN[DA] VETUSTISS[IMAE} PATRIAE MONUMENTA
ATQUE DECORA HlC LOCANDUM STAUIT S. P. Q, V.' ['The
Senate and People of Viterbo have here erected this very ancient
marble, inscribed with hieroglyphs about the victory of Osiris against
182 BRIAN CURRAN
the Giants, in this temple, once dedicated to Hercules, and now to
Saint Lawrence, in order to preserve the monuments and glory of our
very ancient fatherland']. In the nineteenth century, they were
transferred to the Museo Civico. See Emiliozzi, Il Museo Civico di
Viterbo, pp. 19-36 for a complete discussion.
78 - For the language of the Hypnerotomachia, see Maria Teresa
Casella and Giovanni Pozzi, Francesco Colonna: Biographia e Opere, 2 vols
(Padua, 1959), II, pp. 78-126; Charles Mitchell, 'Archaeology and
romance in Renaissance Italy', in E. F. Jacob, ed., Italian Renaissance
Studies (New York, 1960), PP.455-83; esp. PP.466-8; Marco Mancini,
'Intorno alia lingua del "Polifilo"', in R. R. Roma nel Rinascimento,
Bibliogrqfia e note (1989), pp. 29-48; and Patricia Fortini BroWII, Venice
and Antiquiry: The Venetian Sense if the Past (New Haven and London,
1997), pp. 211-12.
79 - For the Venetian Franceso Colonna, see the fundamental studies
of Tommaso Temanza, Vite dei piu celebri architetti e scultori veneziani che
fiorirono nel sec. XVI (Venice, 1778, reprinted 1966), pp. I-53; and
Casella and Pozzi, Francesco Colonna (1959); supplemented by G. Pozzi
and 1. A. Ciapponi, 'La cultura figurativa di Francesco Colonna e
l'arte veneta', Lettere italiane, 14 (1962), pp. 151-69; Morton Lowry, The
World if Aldus Manutius (Oxford, 1979), PP.48-68; Giovanni Pozzi,
'Premessa alia Ristampa', and 'Presentazione' in Franceso Colonna,
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, eds Giovanni Pozzi and Lucia A. Ciapponi
(Padua, 1968, 2nd edn., 1980), PP.3-20; Carlo Roberto Chiarlo, 'Gli
fragmenti dilla sancta antiquitate: Studi antiquari e produzione delle
irnmagini de Ciriaco d'Ancona a Francesco Colonna', in S. Settis, ed.,
Memorio dell'antico nell' arte italiana, Vol. I: L'uso dei classici (Turin, 1984),
pp. 271-303; and Edoardo Fumigalli, 'Due esemplari dell
'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili' di Francesco Colonna', Aevum, 66 (1992),
PP.419-32. Calvesi's arguments are best approached through his two
books on the subject; see M. Calvesi, Il sogno di Poliphilo prenestino
(Rome, 1980); and M. Calvesi, La 'jJugna di amore in sogno' di Francesco
Colonna Romano (Rome, 1996). For a critical discussion and new
arguments supporting the Venetian provenance, see Brown, Venice and
Antiquiry, Appendix I, pp. 686-705'
80 - In this regard, Christian Htilsen's old study, 'Le illustrazione della
"Hypnerotomachia Polifili" e Ie antichita di Roma', La Bibliofilia, 12
(1910), pp. 161-76, remains fundamental, as well as convincing, in its
arguments regarding the Roman sources.
8 I - For 'Poliphilo's' reliance on Vitruvius and Alberti, see Casella and
Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, II, pp. 32-77.
82 - Casella and Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, II, pp. 49-52. For the
manuscript, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms. Lat. d. VIl,2. see
D. Lamberi, in Henry A. Millon and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani,
eds, The Renaissance .from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo: The Representation if
Architecture (New York and Milan, 1994), p. 480, cat. no. 87.
83 - For the relationship, see Mitchell, 'Archaeology and romance in
Renaissance Italy', pp. 455-83; and Chiarlo, 'Gli fragmenti dilla sancta
antiquitate', pp. 271-303. For Cyriacus, Felice, and Venice, see
Deborah Howard, 'Responses to Ancient Greek Architecture in
Renaissance Venice', Annali di architettura, 6 (1994), pp. 23-38; and
Brown, Venice and Antiquiry, pp. 8 I -9 I, I 18-33, 2 I 8.
84 - For Cyriacus and Egypt, see C. C. Van Essen, 'Cyriaque
d'Ancona en Egypte', Mededelingen tier Koninki:fke Netierlandse Akademie van
Wetenschappen, Afdelins Letterkunde, Niewe Reeks, Deel 2 I, n. 2 I (1958),
PP.293-306; and Phyllis W. Lehmann, Cyriacus if Ancona's Egyptian Visit
and its Reflections in Gentile Bellini and Hieronymus Bosch (New York, 1977).
For Cyriacus and Felice's 'archaeological rhapsodies', see Mitchell,
'Archaeology and Romance', pp. 471-81; Charles Mitchell, 'Felice
Feliciano Antiquarius', Proceedings if the British Academy, 47 (196 I)
PP·197- 22 1.
85 - For these manuscripts, see H. Dennis, 'The Garrett Manuscript of
Marcanova', Memoirs if the American Academy in Rome, VI (1927),
pp. 113-26; Maria Cristina Vitali, 'L'Umanista padovano Giovanni
Marcanova e la sua biblioteca', Ateneo veneto, n.S. 21 (1983), pp. 127-61;
Giordana Maria Canova andJonathanJ. G. Alexander inJ. G.
Alexander, ed., The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination
1450-'550 (Munich and New York, 1994), pp. 143-5 (nos 66 and 6);
and Brown, Venice and Antiqui!;v, pp. 118-33.
86 - See Mitchell, 'Archaeology and romance', pp. 476-82; Casella and
Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, I, pp. 89-90; II, pp. 17-18; G. Pozzi, 'Scienza
antiquaria e letteratura: n Feliciano. II Colonna', in Storia della Cultura
Veneta dal primo quattrocento al concilio di Trento, Vol. III. I (Vicenza, 1980),
pp. 459-98; and Chiarlo, 'Gli fragmenti dilla sancta antiquitate',
PP·27 1-3 0 3·
87 - For the most recent discussion of the 'material' vocabulary of the
work, see Stefano Borsi, Polijilo Architetto: cultura architettonica e teoria
artistica nell Hypnerotomachia Poliphili di Francesco Colonna, 1499 (Rome,
1995), pp. 137-67. Borsi's study contains many interesting observations,
but is slanted decidedly in favor of Calvesi's Romanizing
interpretation.
88 - For marmi antichi in Roman (and Italian) history, art, and culture,
see Raniero Gnoli, Marmora RQmana (2nd edn, Rome, 1988) and
Gabriele Borghini, ed., Marmi antichi (Rome, 1992).
89 - For S. Marco, see Otto Demus, The Church if San Marco in Venice:
History, Architecture, Sculpture (Washington, DC, 1960), pp. 26-9, 100-90;
and Deborah Howard, The Architectural History if Venice (New York,
1981) pp. 32-5. For the marbles used for building in Renaissance
Venice, and the taste for multi-colored marbles in particular, see Susan
Connell, The Employment if Sculptors and Stonemasons in Venice in the Fifteenth
Century, PhD thesis, Warburg Institute, London, 1976 (published by
Garland, New York, 1988), pp. I09-52.
90 - See Connell, Employment if Sculptors, pp. I 15-36; John McAndrew,
Venetian Architecture if the Early Renaissance (Cambridge, MA and London,
1980) pp. 2-5, 89-IOl (Scala dei Giganti), 150-81 (S. Maria dei
Miracoli), Howard, Architectural History, pp. 102-35 (others); Norbert
Huse and Wolfgang Wolters, The Art if Renaissance Venice: Architecture,
Sculpture, and Painting, 1460-1590, trans. E. Jephcott (Chicago and
London, 1990), pp. 12-33, 76-81, 104-8.
91 - See Deborah Howard, 'Venetian responses to Greek architecture',
pp. 27-9; and, in general, J~ergen Schulz, 'Urbanism in Medieval
Venice', in A. Molho, K. Raaflaub andJ. Emlen, Ci!;v States in Classical
Antiqui!;v and Medieval Italy: Athens, Rome, Florence, and Venice (Stuttgart,
1991/Ann Arbor, 1992), PP.419-66, esp. PP.433-4, 438-9; Patricia F.
Brown, '''Renovatio'' or "Conciliato"? How Renaissances happened in
Venice', in Alison Brown, ed., Language and Images if Renaissance Italy
(Oxford, 1995), pp. 127-54·
92 - The basic study of the Hypnerotomachia from the 'Egyptological'
and hieroglyphic standpoint is still Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde',
PP.47-79; followed by Volkmann, Bilderschriften, pp. 13-28; and
Iversen, Myth if Egypt, pp. 67-71.
93 - The basic study is still Hulsen, 'Le illustrazione della
'Hypnerotomachia Polifili', pp. 161-76.
94 - For travel to Egypt in the Renaissance, see G. Lumbroso,
'Descrittori Italiani dell'Egitto e di Alessandria', Atti della Reale Accademia
dei Lincei, Rendiconti, Memorie, Classe di scienze morali, storiche, efilologiche,
ser. 3, vol. 3 (1879), pp. 429-503; Dannenfeldt, 'Egypt in the
Renaissance', pp. 11-16; Leslie Greener, The Discovery if Egypt (London,
1966), pp. 34-57; Aleya Khattab, Das ligyptenbild in den deutschensprachigen
Reisebeschreibungen der Zeit von 1285-1500 (Frankfurt am Main, 1982);
and Jeanine Guerin-Daile Mese, Egypte: La memoire et le reve. Itiniraires
d'un voyage, 1320-1601 (Florence, 1991).
95 - For Venice as the major port and trade link to Egypt and the east
during this period, see Frederic C. Lane, Venice, A Maritime Republic
(Baltimore, MD, 1973) pp. 67-85, 234-7, 286-92; and William H.
McNeill, Venice: The Hinge if Europe, 1081-1797 (Chicago and London,
1974). For Venetian outposts and travelers to Egypt during the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, see Giuliano Lucchetta, 'I viaggiatori veneti
dal medioevo all' eta moderna', in Alberto Siliotti, ed., Viaggiatori veneti
alla scoperto dell'Egitto (Venice, 1985), pp. 43-68.
96 - For the Hypnerotomachia hieroglyphs, see Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 46-79; Volkmann, Bilderschriften, pp. 13-26;
Casella and Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, II, pp. 53-6; Iversen, Myth if Egypt,
pp. 66-70; Wittkower, 'Hieroglyphics in the early Renaissance', in
Allegory and the Migration if Symbols, pp. I 18-20; Pope, Story if
Decipherment, pp. 23-4, 193, note 12; Calvesi, It sogno di Polijilo,
pp. 136-52; Giovanni Pozzi, 'Les hieroglyphes de I'Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili', in Y. Giraud, ed., EEmbteme a la Renaissance (Paris, 1982)
pp. 15-27; Jean Ceard and Jean-Claude Margolin, Rebus de la
Renaissance: des images que parient, Vol. I (Paris, 1986), pp. 68-76; and
Dempsey, 'Renaissance hieroglyphic studies', pp. 342-65.
97 - Noted by Hulsen, 'Le illustrazioni della Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili', pp. 171-5; followed by Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde',
pp. 53-65; Volkmann, Bilderschrifien, pp. 15-17; and Iversen, Myth if
Egypt, pp. 66-7; Wittkower, 'Hieroglyphics in the early Renaissance', in
Allegory and the Migration if Symbols, pp. I 18-20.
98 - For the S. Lorenzo fragments, most of which were moved to the
Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Campidoglio in the mid-sixteenth
century, and re-installed in the Stanza dei Filosofi in the Capitoline
Museum in the eighteenth century, see H. Stuart Jones, A Catalogue if
the Ancient Sculptures preserved in the Municipal Collections if Rome. The
Sculptures if the Museo Capitolino (Oxford, 1912), pp. 258-63; Phyllis Pray
Bober and Ruth Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture: A
Handbook if Sources (Oxford, 1987), pp. 225-6, no. 194; and L. Leoncini,
'Storia e fortuna di cosidetto fregio di S. Lorenzo', Xenia, 14 (1987),
PP·59- IIO .
99 - See Bober and Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture,
p. 226; Leoncini, 'Storia e fortuna di cosidetto fregio di S. Lorenzo',
pp. 62-76 (adaptations), 77-104 (drawings). For Mantegna's use of the
S. Lorenzo friezes in the ninth canvas of his great Triumphs if Caesar
(sometimes considered 'hieroglyphic' in intent), see Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 88-94; Volkmann, Bilderschriften, pp. 26-7,
fig. 20; Wittkower, 'Hieroglyphics in the early Renaissance', in Allegory
and the Migration if Symbols, pp. I 18-19, fig. 166; and Andrew
Martindale, The Triumphs if Caesar i?Y Andrea Mantegna (London, 1979),
pp. 170-4 (rejecting the hieroglyphic thesis).
IOO - Wittkower, 'Hieroglyphics in the early Renaissance', in Allegory
and the Migration if Symbols, p. I 18.
101 - The earliest document is Annius' De marmoreis Volturrhenis tabulis,
written c. 1492-3; published by Weiss, 'Unknown epigraphic tract',
pp. 101-7 (discussion), 107-20 (text, notes); cf. Weiss, Renaissance
Discovery, p. I 54.
102 - The friezes were first printed in the Speculum Romanae
Magnijicentiae (c. 1572), where they were described as sacrificial
implements; then as 'Effigies Hieroglyphicorum' in Herwarth von
Hohenburg's Thesaurus Hieroglyphicorum (Munich, c. 1608-10), pI. 37. See
Iversen, Myth if Egypt, pI. VI. 2; Wittkower, 'Hieroglyphics in the early
Renaissance', in Allegory and the Migration if Symbols, pp. Il8-19, fig. 165.
103 - Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 57-8.
lo4-Hypnerotomachia, ed. Pozzi-Ciapponi, II, PP.91-3. For the
numismatic source, see Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', p. 57, fig. 15.
The Augustan motto is described by Suetonius, Augustus, xxv. 4;
Macrobius, Saturnalia, VI. 8. 9; and Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, x. II. 5.
105 - Hypnerotomachia, II, pp. 91-3. For more on the potential meanings,
sources and fortuna of this hieroglyph, see Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 57-9; Volkmann, Bilderschrijlen, p. 17; Wind,
Pagan Mysteries, pp. 100-4; Gombrich, 'Icones Symbolicae', in Symbolic
Images, p. 168; Giovanni Pozzi, 'Les hieroglyphes', pp. 20-4-
106 - Pozzi, 'Les hieroglyphes', pp. 15-16; Ceard and Margolin, Rebus
de la Renaissance, I, pp. 68-71; Dempsey, 'Renaissance hieroglyphic
studies', PP.351-2.
107 - Alberti, De re aedijicatoria, VII. 4; Hypnerotomachia, II, pp. 68-9.
108 - Boas, Hieroglyphics, p. 33, argues that the Hypnerotomachia shows no
evidence of the authors' familiarity with Horapollo. Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 48-55, is more open to the possibility of
Horapollo's influence, but cites Diodorus, Arnmianus, and Macrobius
as more likely sources. Pozzi, 'Les hieroglyphes', pp. 24-5; considers
Ammianus the only unarguable ancient source, probably through the
medium of Alberti.
109 - Iversen, JoJyth if Egypt, p. 68; Dempsey, 'Renaissance hieroglyphic
studies', PP.348-53.
I 10 - For useful (if inevitably somewhat speculative) sigu by sigu
readings of Poliphilo's translations, see Hypnerotomachia, II, pp. 68-9;
and Pope, The Story if Decipherment, p. 193, note 12.
I I 1 - Iversen, JoJyth if Egypt, p. 68; and see Pozzi, 'Les hieroglyphes',
PP·I5- I8 .
I 12 - Calvesi, 'II gaio classicismo', pp. 77-84.
I 13 - Fra Urbano was advanced as a possible influence on the
Dominican Francesco Colonna by Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde',
pp. 102-13; followed by Volkmann, Bilderschrif/en, pp. 34-5; Casella and
Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, I, P.54, II, p. 147, note 147; Iversen, JoJyth if
Egypt, pp. 70-1.
114 - For the life and career of Fra Urbano, see Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 102-13; Guido Bustico, 'Due umanisti veneti:
Urbano Bolzanio e Pierio Valeriano', Civilta moderna, 4 (1932),
pp. 86-103, 344-79; Iversen, JoJyth if Egypt, pp. 70-1; Luigi Beschi,
'L'Anonimo Ambrosiano: un itinerario in Grecia di Urbano Bolzanio',
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rendiconti, Classe di scienze morali, storiche e
filologiche, ser.8, vol. 39 (1984), pp. 3-22; L. Gualdo Rosa, 'DaIle Fosse
(Bolzanio), Urbano', Diz;ionario biogrqfico degli Italiani, Vol. 32 (Rome,
1986), pp. 88-92 (with extensive bibliography); Margaret Daly Davis, 'I
geroglifici in marmo di Pierio Valeriano', Labyrinthos, 9 (1990),
pp·47-n
115 - See Lowry, The World if Aldus Manutius, pp. 80, 184-7, 232.
I 16 - For Valeriano, see Giuseppe Cali, Della vita e delle opere di Giovanni
Pierio Valeriano (Catania, 1901); Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde',
pp. 113-29; G. Bustico, 'Due umanisti veneti', pp. 348-76;
G. Luchetta, 'Contributi per una biografia di Pierio Valeriano', Italia
mediovale e umanistica, 9 (1966), pp. 461-76; and L. Gualdo Rosa, 'DaIle
Fosse, Giovanni Pietro (Pierio Valeriano)" Dizionario biogrqfico degli
Italiani, Vol. 32 (Rome, 1986), pp. 85-8.
I 17 - Piero Valeriano, Hierogfyphica (Basel, 1556; 1602 edn, Lyons;
reprinted New York and London, 1976), pp. 331-2 (Bk. XXXIII). For
discussion, see Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 109-13.
118 - Valeriano, Hieroglyphica, XXXIII. 8, 1602 edn., p. 333, cf. Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', p. 56; Casella and Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, I,
p. 147, note 3; Wind, Pagan JoJysteries, pp. 71-2, note 68.
119 - Htilsen, 'Le illustrazioni della Hypnerotomachia Poliphili',
pp. 165-6; Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', PP.53-5; Casella and Pozzi,
Francesco Colonna, II, PP.53-4; Hypnerotomachia, II, p. 179; Calvesi, n sogno
di Polifilo, pp. 152-6.
120 - Hypnerotomachia, I, pp. 28-34. Pliny the Elder describes the
Lacedaemonian stone in N. H., XXXVI. I I. 55; see Gnoli, Marmora
romana, pp. 141-4; Borgerini, Marmi antichi, pp. 279-81 (no. 121).
121 - Pliny, N. H., XXXVI. 67. 196-7; cf. Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 51-2; Casella and Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, I,
p. 60; Hypnerotomachia, I, p. 28, II, pp. 66-7. For discussion of possible
sources and meanings, see the fundamental study by William S.
Heckscher, 'Bernini's elephant and obelisk', Art Bulletin, 29 (1947),
pp. 155-82, esp. pp. 158-69; and Flaminia CosmeIli, 'L'elefante,
l'albero e l'obelisco', Storia dell'Arte, 66 (1985), pp. 107-18 (for a rather
far-fetched analysis which embraces Indian and Persian models).
122 - This has been noted previously by Giehlow,
'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 51-2; and Calvesi, 'II gaio classicismo', p. 81;
and La 'jJugna di amore', pp. 297-9, figs 33-4. Unfortunately, neither
scholar makes much of the point.
123 - Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, ms. Barberiniano lat. 4424,
fol. 70r; cf. C. Hi.ilsen, II Libro di Giuliano da Sangallo. Codice Vaticano
Barberiniano Latina 4424, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1910, reprinted Vatican city,
1984), I, p. 72; II, pI. 62r; cf. Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, fig. 41.
184 BRIAN CURRAN
124 - See Iversen, Obelisks in Exile, I, p. 82.
125 - SangaIlo's drawing corresponds to the lower section of the
eastern face of the obelisk as rendered in the fold-out engraving (by
P. Miotte) in Athanasius Kircher's Obeliscus Pamphilius (Rome, 1650).
126 - The single border-band is a feature more or less unique to this
monument. The obelisk of Antinous (which was visible in the ruins of
the Circus Varianus) had two bands of inscription framed by three
broad strips, while the S. Macuto, Campidoglio, and other obelisks
then visible have no such framing element.
127 - For discussion of these drawings, see Curran, 'Ancient Egypt and
Egyptian antiquities', PP.399-406.
128 - Hypnerotomachia, I, pp. 120-3.
129-Ibid.
130 - Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 73-6; Volkmann,
Bilderschri.ften, p. 17-18; Calvesi, II sogno di Polifilo, pp. 172-3. Pico had
been an important early friend and mentor of the book's publisher,
Aldus Manutius, see Lowry, The World if Aldus Manutius, pp. 52-8, 66,
74-6, 19 1 -3.
131 - Plato, 7imaeus, 56b; Ammianus, XII. 15. 28; Isidore of Seville,
Etymologiae, xv. I I. 4.
132 - Ficino, De vita coelitus comparanda, XVIII. 30-5; see Carol V. Kaske
and John R. Clark, trans., Marsilio Fieino, Three Books on Lifi
(Binghamton, 1989), p. 335. Ficino's source for the Egyptian
'prefiguration' of the cross is Rufinus, Historia Ecclesiastica, XI. 29. For
Ficino and hieroglyphs, see Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', pp. 22-4;
Boas, Hierogfyphics, pp. 14-15; Wind, Pagan JoJysteries, pp. 207-9; Iversen,
JoJyth if Egypt, p. 64; Dieckmann, Hieroglyphics, pp. 34-8; and Gombrich,
'Icones Symbolicae', in >$ymbolic Images, pp. 158-60.
133 - Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', p. 75. For Ficino and the Trinity,
see MichaelJ. B. Allen, 'Marsilio Ficino on Plato, the Neoplatonists
and the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity', Renaissance Qyarterly, 37
(1984), pp. 555-84; and more esoterically, Wind, Pagan JoJysteries,
PP·24 1-55·
134 - See in general Casella and Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, I, p. 29, II,
p. 125; Wind, Pagan JoJysteries, pp. 103-4, esp. note 23 (for the author's
'non-philosophical' mind); Pozzi and Gianella. 'Scienza antiquaria',
p. 481; Fumagalli, 'Due esemplari', PP.430-I (for the 'patristic' reading).
135 - Casella and Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, II, pp. I I -3 I; Brown, Venice
and Antiquity, PP.536-7.
136 - Hypnerotomachia, I, p. 122.
137 - For the medieval belief that the Vatican obelisk was supported by
two or four bronze lions, which was only refuted when the obelisk's
base was excavated in the mid-Quattrocento, see Iversen, Obelisks in
Exile, I, pp. 25-6.
138 - Hypnerotomachia, I, pp. 14-22, 34-59.
139 - Htilsen, 'Le illustrazioni della Hypnerotomachia', pp. 167-70;
Casella and Pozzi, Francesco Colonna, II, pp. 57-6 I; Hypnerotomachia, II,
P.58. The Mausoleum is described by Pliny, N. H., XXXVI. 4. 30-2. In
a paper given at the University of Pennsylvania conference,John Bury
argued that the pyramid-temple could have been inspired, not only by
Pliny's description, but by the still-surviving remains of the Mausoleum
itself, which survived more or less intact until it was slowly demolished
by the Knights of Stjohn to provide building materials for their castle
at Bodrum between 1494 and 1522 see Geoffrey B. Waywell in Peter
W. Clayton, ed., Seven Wonders if the Ancient World (New York, 1988),
PP· I0 4- 6 .
140 - Pliny, N. H., XXXVI, 30-1.
141 -Hypnerotomachia, I, pp. 16-17.
142 - Ibid. I, pp. 14-22; II, P.58. According to the most reliable
sources then available, Herodotus, II. 124-5; Diodorus, I. 63· 3-9;
Strabo, XVII. I. 33-4; and Pliny, N. H., XXXVI. 16. 75-17. 82; the
great pyramid was about 700-800' at the base and almost as tall.
Strabo gives the height and base-width of the great pyramid as one
stadium, dimensions which the author of the Hypnerotomachia obviously
set out to exceed.
143 - Hypnerotomachia, I, pp. 21-2; II, pp. 62-3. Poliphilo compares the
building with the pyramids and labyrinths of Egypt, the labyrinth of
Lemnos, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the tomb of Ninos, and
even the great plan of Dinocrates to carve the mountain of Athos into
a great colossus holding a city in his hand. Cf. Casella & Pozzi,
Francesco Colonna, pp. 59-6 I.
144 - See Deborah Pincus, The Arco Foscari: The Building of a Triumphal
Gateway in Fifteenth-Century Venice, PhD thesis, New York University,
1974 (published by Garland, New York, 1976), pp. 124-5.
145 - For early exploration and restorations of this pyramid, which
dates to the time of Augustus, see Massimo Pomponi, 'n restauro
seicentesco della Piramide Cestia: Richerche antiquarie e fortuna delle
pitture', Xenia Antiqua, II (1993), pp. 149-74.
146 - One of the few authors to address the resemblance is Michael
Greenhalgh, 'The Monument in the Hypnerotomachia and the
Pyramids of Egypt', Nouvelles de l'estampe, 14 (1974), pp. 13-16. But the
author says little about the possible sources, emphasizing instead the
influence of the woodcut on later conceptions of the pyramids. Slightly
more helpful is the essay by John Paoletti, 'Renaissance', in P. Berg
and M. Jones, eds, Pyramidal lrifluences in Art (Dayton, OH, 1980),
PP.27-35, esp. p. 32. Borsi, Polifilo Architetto, pp. 16-17,29-33,
emphasizes the Roman sources and models, in deference to his
allegiance to the Calvesi thesis.
147 - Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo were available in Latin
translations commissioned by Pope Nicholas V in the 1450s, see
E. Miintz and P. Fabre, La Bibliotheque du Vatican au xVe mele (Paris,
1887), pp. ii-iv, 34-114; Remigio Sabbadini, Ie scoperte dei codici latini e
greci ne' secoli XIV-XV, 2 vols (florence, 1905, 2nd edn, 1967, ed.
Eugenio Garin), I, pp. 56-8; and E. B. Fryde, Humanism and Renaissance
Historiography (London, 1983), PP.27-30; 72-92. The Latin Strabo and
Pliny the Elder's Natural History were printed in 1469; the Latin
Diodorus in 1472, Herodotus and Ammianus in 1474; cf. Pope, Story of
Archaeological Decipherment, p. 20.
148 - Hypnerotomachia, I, p. 14; cf. Herodotus, II. 124-5. Although it is
sometimes assumed that the masonry of the pyramids had been set
without mortar, this is not,.in fact, the case (although the usage is
minimal). See Somers Clarke and R. Engelbach, Ancient Egyptian
Construction and Architecture (Oxford and London, 1930, pp. 78-83; and
Dieter Arnold, Building in Egypt: Pharaonic Stone Masonry (New York and
Oxford, 1991), PP'44, 116, 124, 168-9, 240, 291-2.
149-Pliny, N. H., XXXVI. 19.86.
150 - Herodotus, II. 124; cf. Pozzi, Hypnerotomachia, I, p. 20; II, p. 62;
who considers Libya a reference to the 'homeland of the obelisk in
Egypt'. Calvesi, II sogno di Polifilo, pp. 72, 278, note I, considers this a
reference to, among other things, the Roman Colonna family's claim
of descent from the 'Libyan Hercules'.
151 - Hypnerotomachia, I, pp. 20-2; and see Borsi, Polifilo Architetto,
pp. 79-82. Pliny the Elder (N. H., XXXVI. 19. 84-89) describes the
labyrinths right after the pyramids, and Ammianus (XXII. 28-30) slips
from a discussion of the pyramids to an account of the subterranean
tombs called 'Syringes', with their underground chambers filled with
hieroglyphic carvings.
152 - For the medieval removal of the casing stones on the Giza
pyramids, see Ahmed Fakhry, The Pyramids (Chicago and London,
1969), pp. 101-2; I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt (rev. edn, New
York, 1986), p. 106.
153 - See above, note 94.
154 - For Fabri's Egyptian voyage, see F. Fabri, Ie Voyage en Egypte de
Felix Fabri, I483, 3 vols., trans., ed., and notes by Jacques Masson
(Cairo, 1975); and the discussion in G. W. Murray, 'Felix Fabri's
pilgrimage from Gaza to Mount Sinai and Cairo, AD 1483', The
GeographicalJournal, 122 (1956), pp. 335-42.
155 - See C. D. Hassler, ed., Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terrae
Sanctae, Arabiae et Egyptii peregrinationem, 3 vols (Stuttgart, 1843-9), III,
P.425; see the Italian translation, Felice Fabri, Venezia nel
MCDLXXXVIII, descrizione di Felice Fabri da Ulma, trans. Vincenzo
Lazari, ed. Domenico Zasso (Venice, 1881), pp. 72-3; partial
English translation in Huse and Wolters, Art in Renaissance Venice,
PP·14 2-3·
156-For the pyramid-granaries of San Marco (c. 1230-60), see Otto
Demus, The Mosaics if San Marco in Venice, Vol. II: The Thirteenth Century,
2 vols (Chicago and London, 1984), I, pp.84-9, 166; II, pis. 290-1, 295.
157 - See Laura Sitran Gasparri, 'L'Egitto nella rappresentazione
cartografica', in Siliotti, ed., Viaggiatori veneti, pp. 17-36; and, for
accounts of the pyramids in particular, Guerin-Daile Mese, Egypte: La
memoire et Ie reve, pp. 524-42.
158 - Hypnerotomachia, I, p. 17.
159 - Sebastiano Serlio, Tutte Ie opere d'architettura et prospetiva di Sebastiano
Serlio Bolognese (Venice, 1616) Libro III, fol. 93r-v; cf. S. Serlio, The Five
Books if Architecture (London, 161 I, reprinted New York, 1982), fol. 43v;
and, most recently, the English translation by Vaughan Hart and Peter
Hicks, Sebastiano Serlio on Architecture, Vol. I: Books I-V if 'Tuite [,opere
d'architettura et prospettiva' by Sebastiano Serlio (New Haven and London,
1996), pp. 184, 442. Grimani's journey took place c. 1535-6, according
to Lumbroso, 'Descrittori Italiani', p. 446; see also Hart and Hicks,
Serlio on Architecture, p. 442, n. 442.
160 - Hart & Hicks, Serlio on Architecture, p. 184.
161 - See Giehlow, 'Hieroglyphenkunde', p. 56; and see Elizabeth
Watson, Achille Bocchi and the Emblem Book as Symbolic Form (Cambridge,
1993), pp. 19-20, 39, 100-4· For references, see Rabelais, Pantagruel,
Book 4 (1548), in Donald M. Frame, trans., The Complete Works if
Franfois Rabelais (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 199 I), pp. 599-600; and
Erasmus, Adagiorum chiliades (Venice, Aldus, 1508), in R. A. B. Mynors,
ed., Collected Works if Erasmus, Vol. XXXIII (Toronto, 1991), pp. 5-7.
162 - For the drawing, Uffizi UA1232r, inscribed: 'per la guglia dil
popolo quali si e a santo rocho', see Alfonso Bartoli, I Monumenti Antichi
di Roma nel disegni degli UJfizi di Firenze, Vol. III (Rome, 1919), p. 74, pI.
CCXXXl, fig. 397; Manfredo Tafuri, 'L'Obelisco di piazza del Popolo,
15 I 9c.', in Christoph Luitpold Frommel, Stefano Ray and Manfredo
Tafuri, eds, Raffaello architetto (Milan, 1984), pp. 229-30, no. 2. I 2. I;
D'Onofrio, Gli obelischi di Roma (1992), p. 93, fig. 45. D'Onofrio suggests
that only six sphinxes are intended, but since the base presumably has
four equal sides, eight seems a more likely number; see Tafuri, p. 230.
163 - See Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue if the Latin
Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library at Manchester, Vol. I (Manchester,
1921, revised edn Munich, 1980, ed. Frank Taylor), pp. 18-20, 87-96
(nos 32-7), esp. pp.89-90, pI. 77; Pevsner and Lang, 'The Egyptian
revival', pp.222-3, 247, n.58, fig. 29; Curl, Egyptomania, pp. 62, 65,
pI. 30; Dirk Syndram, in G. Sievernich and H. Budde, eds, Europa und
der Orient 800-I900 (Berlin, 1989), pp. 19 (pI. I, colorplate), 389-90,
no. 1/9. I am preparing a patronage-based iconographical study of the
'Egyptian Page'.
18 5