Francesco Colonna (writer)

Francesco Colonna
Franciscus Columna
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili illustration (1499).
Personal
Born	1433 Venice, Italy
Died	1527 Venice, Italy
Religion	Catholic religion
Nationality	Italian
School	St Mark's Basilica
Lineage	Colonna
Profession	Priest and monk
Organization
Order	Dominican Order
Church	Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice
Senior posting
Literary works	Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
Profession	Priest and monk

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

He lived in Venice, and preached at St. Mark's Cathedral. Besides Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, he definitely wrote a Latin epic poem, Delfili Somnium (the "Dream of Delfilo"), which went unpublished in his lifetime and was not published until 1959.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 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's and Dustin Thomason's novel, The Rule of Four, the Roman noble of the same name, Francesco Colonna, is featured as the true author of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

References

• Pozzi, Giovanni (1982). "Colonna, Francesco." In: Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Vol. 27. Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.

External links

• Works by Francesco Colonna at Project Gutenberg
• 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, ISBN 978-0-8201-1124-7.
• Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, at MIT Press
• Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, at Rare Book Room