COLONNA, FRANCESCO. - Dominican and writer, born at Treviso c. 1432 or 1433, died c. 1527.
On the basis of an acrostic, Poliam frater Franciscus Colonna peramavit, he is considered the author of the singular romance Hypnerotomachia Polypilili (The Struggle of Love in a Dream, or Poliphilo’s Dream), completed in 1467 and printed in 1499 by Manuzio, adorned with engravings and a masterpiece of Renaissance book art. The imaginative narrative, in a language mixed of Italian and Latin, in a curious syncretism of medieval allegorism and pagan mysticism, describes Polifilo’s ideal journey to win his beloved Polia through the realms of art and freedom, until he comes into the presence of Venus.
BIBL.: R. Zagaria, A proposito del « Principiato stylo » della « Hypnerotomachia Polypilili », and two recent conjectures, in Giorn. stor. della lett. it., 41 (1903), pp. 454-56; P. Molmenti, Alcuni documenti concernenti l'autore della Hypnerotomachia Polypilili, in Arch. stor. ital., 5ª serie, 38 (1906), pp. 291-314; R. Barraud, Essai de bibliographie du « Songe de Polypilili », in Bibliophilia, 15 (1913-14), pp. 21-29, 121-34, 186-95, 217-20; F. Flora, Storia della lett. ital., I, 2ª ed., Milano 1948, pp. 551-57. Raffaello Prati