Francesco Colonna (1433/1434 – 1527) was an Italian Dominican

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

and

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

who was credited with the authorship of the ''

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' (; ), called in English ''Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream'' or ''The Dream of Poliphilus'', is a book said to be by Francesco Colonna. It is a famous example of an incunable (a work of early printing). The wor ...

'' by an acrostic formed by initial letters of the text. He lived in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, and preached at St. Mark's Cathedral. Besides ''

'', he definitely wrote a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

epic poem An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...

, ''Delfili Somnium'' (the "Dream of Delfilo"), which went unpublished in his lifetime and was not published until 1959. Colonna spent part of his life in the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

of San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, but the monastery was apparently not of the strictest observance and Colonna was granted leave to live outside its walls. In

Ian Caldwell Ian Mackinnon Caldwell is an American novelist known for co-authoring the 2004 novel '' The Rule of Four''. His second book, ''The Fifth Gospel'', was published in 2015. Personal life Caldwell was born and raised in Fairfax County, Virginia dur ...

's and

Dustin Thomason Dustin Thomason (born 1976) is an American writer and producer who co-authored the ''New York Times'' bestselling historical fiction novel '' The Rule of Four'' with Ian Caldwell. Novels Thomason began his career as a novelist. He is a co-autho ...

's novel ''

The Rule of Four :''This article relates to the 2004 novel. For the legal practice, see Rule of four''. The Rule of Four is a novel written by the American authors Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, and published in 2004. Caldwell, a Princeton University graduate ...

'', the Roman noble of the same name, Francesco Colonna, is featured as the true author of the ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili''.A comparable conclusion was reached in G. Goebel, "Le songe de Francesco Colonna, prince prenestin", ''Fifteenth Century Studies'', Stuttgart, 1983.

References

External links

* * * Colonna, Francesco, ''Hypnerotomachia: The Strife of Love in a Dreame'', Translation by R.D., London, 1592. Facsimile ed., introd. by Lucy Gent, 1973, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, .
''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili''
at

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili''
at

Rare Book Room Rare Book Room is an educational website for the repository of digitally scanned rare books made freely available to the public. Story Starting around 1996 the California-based company Octavo began scanning rare and important books from librarie ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colonna, Francesco Italian Renaissance writers 15th-century Venetian writers 1430s births 1527 deaths Italian Dominicans 16th-century Venetian writers 16th-century male writers