I suppose I should have known better, but I have been rather disappointed by my copy of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili which turned up today, following the advertisement at reference 1.
I think it started out in the US, with the trail starting with the people at reference 5, somehow finding its way to somewhere called Schiedam in the Netherlands, from there to Castle Donnington (up North) and from there to Epsom.
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| In the absence of anything better, the fine WalMart at La Vergne |
It appears to be a rather poor quality photographic reproduction of a 1592 original, possibly held in one of the libraries at Oxford University, probably printed on demand in La Vergne, Tennessee. Cheap hardback binding, quite good quality paper. Apparatus very close to zero. That is to say we are told there is a 2009 copyright held by Oxford Reprints. We then dive into the text, with the page numbers being those of the original, starting a few pages in and ending, oddly neatly, at page 100.
Not yet been able to find out anything about Oxford Reprints. Are they the Oxford University people who give permission for you to make retreads of their stuff? Or is the name just there to give lustre to an operation which has nothing to do with Oxford or the university there?
Then, just after page 100, we have a one page advertisement for another offering from Benediction Books by one Anita Mathias.
After that, apart from a few blank pages, perhaps for readers' scholarly notes (in old-style pencil, naturally), nothing. Except for a very small CPSIA notice. I go to their web site to get the not very helpful information about Tennessee above.
I then ask Bing about Benediction Books, and in among a lot of stuff about the saint, I have reference 4, some kind of database about books.
I have not really looked beyond the entry for Benediction Books, the relevant part of which is snapped above. The Gutenberg Project at reference 3 does rather better telling me, inter alia, that '... Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was partially translated into English in a London edition of 1592 by "R. D.", believed to be Robert Dallington, who gave it the title by which it is best known in English, The Strife of Love in a Dream ...'. Wikipedia, reference 7, knows all about the chap.
The book was not particularly cheap and I had expected just a few pages about where the book came from. Something about the abridgement suggested above. And I had expected the reproduction to be of rather better quality. What we have is fairly faint and will need to be read in a good light. Far less legible, for example, than the various offerings available online on the Internet. Somewhat less legible that the giant download noticed at reference 1, with the book's only advantage over this last being that it is in early English - that is to say 16th century English rather than 15th century Italian.
Perhaps what we have here is virtual publisher. Run by a small bunch of IT people who know next to nothing about the book trade beyond the mechanics of driving a modern printer and putting books into jiffy bags for distribution. Is it all Amazon, under the covers, as it were?
We will see how I get on - if at all.
Reference 2: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: the Strife of Love in a Dream - Fransesco Colonna, translated by R.D. - 1592.
Reference 4: https://www.book-info.com/index.htm.
Reference 5: https://www.superbookdeals.com/. Of Maryland, US. Described as a subsidiary of the ecommerce people at reference 6.
Reference 6: https://www.farcornerinc.com/.
Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dallington.
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