Papers by James C O'Neill
Word & Image, 2023
This paper focuses on the botanical specimens and their symbolic purpose in the narrative of the ... more This paper focuses on the botanical specimens and their symbolic purpose in the narrative of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499). It examines the questions as to why certain plants are positioned at certain narrative stages, and the relationship between their aesthetic, medical, literary and symbolic purpose with the narrative, and how this ratiocination of reflecting a developing topography with the interior development of the soul is handled in a wholly humanist-Renaissance manner over earlier handling of botany in the medieval philosophical dream allegories such as Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun’s Roman de la rose and Brunetto Latini’s Il Tesoretto, or the pre-medieval Prudentius’s Psychomachia. As Godwin’s translation is the only currently published English translation, I have used this when quoting from the Hypnerotomachia, however, in the appendix of botanical terms I have translated the names myself with commentary.
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International Journal of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences , Sep 1, 2021
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published anonymously in 1499, has long posed puzzles for historia... more The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published anonymously in 1499, has long posed puzzles for historians and scholars as to the full depth of its meaning, such as, the name of the illustrator, why it was published through the Aldine Press in Venice, but perhaps most notably in twentieth century research, why it was published anonymously and who the author actually was. There are by now numerous suggestions for authorship, ranging from Cosimo d'Medici to Leon Battista Alberti, the Francesco Colonna of Venice to
the Colonna of Rome. This paper, however, does not posit a new suggestion but rather critiques the suggestions made over the last century and the present one and suggests a narratological method of biographical research for authorship profiling for future authorial research.
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Qualitative Inquiry (Sage Journals), Sep 8, 2021
Walking as a methodological approach has developed within anthropological, literary, sociological... more Walking as a methodological approach has developed within anthropological, literary, sociological, and ethnographic research, and more recently in ethno-biographic studies, but has not greatly crossed into history or art history. In this article, using the metaphor of the "constellation," we offer a transdisciplinary methodology to complicate Euro-western renaissance humanism, in our exploration of the gendered, temporal, spatial, and cultural aspects of renaissance Florence, through a walk in the "Boboli gardens" in the footsteps of Poliphilo. Walking helps us to form a sense of our past, present, and future, and in walking, we gain ground in the "art of paying attention" (Ingold). In our walk, key emerging themes are the gardens as a metaphor for visual culture; the phenomenological, temporal, and spatial transgression of gender norms and their demarcated thresholds; gardens as stimulating cognition and the sensorial; and the developing art of garden aesthetics and the architectonic.
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Thesis Chapters by James C O'Neill
Self-Transformation in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 2022
This thesis critically engaged with the narrative of the Hypnerotomachia and with Poliphilo as a ... more This thesis critically engaged with the narrative of the Hypnerotomachia and with Poliphilo as a character within this narrative. Using narratological analysis, it examines the journey of Poliphilo and the series of symbolic, allegorical, and metaphorical experiences narrated by him that are indicative of his metamorphosing interiority within a mystagogic journey. This is conducted through an analysis of the relationship between Poliphilo and his external surroundings in sequences of the narrative pertaining to thresholds; the symbolic architectural, topographical, and garden forms and spaces; and Poliphilo’s transforming interior passions pertaining to his love of antiquarianism, language and rhetoric, and of Polia, the latter of which leads to his elegiac description of lovesickness. The thesis analyses the relationship between the narrative, which functions both realistically and symbolically to portray the protagonist’s transforming self into its final state at the climax of the narrative, and the symbolic function of the architecture and objects of art within the narrative. The thesis engages with the source material for the narrative drawn from classical, medieval and humanist literature in the areas of philosophy, poetry, natural history, travel diaries and architectural treatises, using a mixed methods methodology combining philology with narratology and socio-historic approaches. It demonstrates, through analysis of the broad literary source material of the Hypnerotomachia, how antiquarian objects, buildings, gardens, and topography are used as expressive narrative devices by the author, drawing on medieval and Renaissance concepts, to demonstrate Poliphilo’s transforming interiority, symbolically, metaphorically or allegorically, established through the character’s encounters during the narrative.
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Books by James C O'Neill
Routledge , 2023
The Allegory of Love in the Early Renaissance
This monograph is the first full-length study to ... more The Allegory of Love in the Early Renaissance
This monograph is the first full-length study to critically engage with the narrative of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and with Poliphilo as a character within this narrative in relation to the antiquarian, architectural, numerosophical, botanical and iconographical symbolism that frames each scene. The Hypnerotomachia is a Renaissance allegorical dream narrative published anonymously by the Aldine press in 1499 and attributed posthumously to Francesco Colonna (1433-1527) a Venetian Dominican priest (though which Francesco Colonna is still a matter of some debate). The narrative follows Poliphilo through a series of highly symbolic and allegorical scenes from the selva oscura (dark forest) of Brunetto Latini and Dante, through landscapes littered with classical ruins, through extraordinary gardens, architecture and topography, before a magical wedding ritual and eventual union with Polia, for whom he is searching for on his dream-love-journey.
This book examines the love-journey of Poliphilo, and the series of symbolic, allegorical, and metaphorical experiences narrated by him that are indicative of his metamorphosing interiority within this mystagogic love journey. This is conducted through a narratological analysis of the relationship between Poliphilo and his external surroundings in sequences of the narrative pertaining to thresholds; the symbolic architectural, topographical, and garden forms and spaces; and Poliphilo’s transforming interior passions pertaining to his love of antiquarianism, language and rhetoric, and of Polia, the latter of which leads to his elegiac description of lovesickness. This is framed in relation to the broader European literary context from which this extraordinary narrative draws its inspiration from and which encompasses a great breadth of Medieval scholasticism and Renaissance humanism.
This study examines the relationship between the narrative, which functions both realistically and symbolically to portray the protagonist’s transforming self into its final state at the climax of the narrative, and the symbolic function of the architecture and objects of art within the narrative. The monograph engages with the source material for the narrative that is drawn from classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature in the areas of philosophy, poetry, natural history, travel diaries and architectural treatises. It demonstrates, through analysis of the broad literary source material of the Hypnerotomachia, how antiquarian objects, buildings, gardens, and topography are used as expressive narrative devices by the author, drawing on medieval and humanist concepts, to demonstrate Poliphilo’s transforming interiority, symbolically, metaphorically or allegorically, and established through the character’s encounters during the narrative.
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Papers by James C O'Neill
the Colonna of Rome. This paper, however, does not posit a new suggestion but rather critiques the suggestions made over the last century and the present one and suggests a narratological method of biographical research for authorship profiling for future authorial research.
Thesis Chapters by James C O'Neill
Books by James C O'Neill
This monograph is the first full-length study to critically engage with the narrative of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and with Poliphilo as a character within this narrative in relation to the antiquarian, architectural, numerosophical, botanical and iconographical symbolism that frames each scene. The Hypnerotomachia is a Renaissance allegorical dream narrative published anonymously by the Aldine press in 1499 and attributed posthumously to Francesco Colonna (1433-1527) a Venetian Dominican priest (though which Francesco Colonna is still a matter of some debate). The narrative follows Poliphilo through a series of highly symbolic and allegorical scenes from the selva oscura (dark forest) of Brunetto Latini and Dante, through landscapes littered with classical ruins, through extraordinary gardens, architecture and topography, before a magical wedding ritual and eventual union with Polia, for whom he is searching for on his dream-love-journey.
This book examines the love-journey of Poliphilo, and the series of symbolic, allegorical, and metaphorical experiences narrated by him that are indicative of his metamorphosing interiority within this mystagogic love journey. This is conducted through a narratological analysis of the relationship between Poliphilo and his external surroundings in sequences of the narrative pertaining to thresholds; the symbolic architectural, topographical, and garden forms and spaces; and Poliphilo’s transforming interior passions pertaining to his love of antiquarianism, language and rhetoric, and of Polia, the latter of which leads to his elegiac description of lovesickness. This is framed in relation to the broader European literary context from which this extraordinary narrative draws its inspiration from and which encompasses a great breadth of Medieval scholasticism and Renaissance humanism.
This study examines the relationship between the narrative, which functions both realistically and symbolically to portray the protagonist’s transforming self into its final state at the climax of the narrative, and the symbolic function of the architecture and objects of art within the narrative. The monograph engages with the source material for the narrative that is drawn from classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature in the areas of philosophy, poetry, natural history, travel diaries and architectural treatises. It demonstrates, through analysis of the broad literary source material of the Hypnerotomachia, how antiquarian objects, buildings, gardens, and topography are used as expressive narrative devices by the author, drawing on medieval and humanist concepts, to demonstrate Poliphilo’s transforming interiority, symbolically, metaphorically or allegorically, and established through the character’s encounters during the narrative.
the Colonna of Rome. This paper, however, does not posit a new suggestion but rather critiques the suggestions made over the last century and the present one and suggests a narratological method of biographical research for authorship profiling for future authorial research.
This monograph is the first full-length study to critically engage with the narrative of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and with Poliphilo as a character within this narrative in relation to the antiquarian, architectural, numerosophical, botanical and iconographical symbolism that frames each scene. The Hypnerotomachia is a Renaissance allegorical dream narrative published anonymously by the Aldine press in 1499 and attributed posthumously to Francesco Colonna (1433-1527) a Venetian Dominican priest (though which Francesco Colonna is still a matter of some debate). The narrative follows Poliphilo through a series of highly symbolic and allegorical scenes from the selva oscura (dark forest) of Brunetto Latini and Dante, through landscapes littered with classical ruins, through extraordinary gardens, architecture and topography, before a magical wedding ritual and eventual union with Polia, for whom he is searching for on his dream-love-journey.
This book examines the love-journey of Poliphilo, and the series of symbolic, allegorical, and metaphorical experiences narrated by him that are indicative of his metamorphosing interiority within this mystagogic love journey. This is conducted through a narratological analysis of the relationship between Poliphilo and his external surroundings in sequences of the narrative pertaining to thresholds; the symbolic architectural, topographical, and garden forms and spaces; and Poliphilo’s transforming interior passions pertaining to his love of antiquarianism, language and rhetoric, and of Polia, the latter of which leads to his elegiac description of lovesickness. This is framed in relation to the broader European literary context from which this extraordinary narrative draws its inspiration from and which encompasses a great breadth of Medieval scholasticism and Renaissance humanism.
This study examines the relationship between the narrative, which functions both realistically and symbolically to portray the protagonist’s transforming self into its final state at the climax of the narrative, and the symbolic function of the architecture and objects of art within the narrative. The monograph engages with the source material for the narrative that is drawn from classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature in the areas of philosophy, poetry, natural history, travel diaries and architectural treatises. It demonstrates, through analysis of the broad literary source material of the Hypnerotomachia, how antiquarian objects, buildings, gardens, and topography are used as expressive narrative devices by the author, drawing on medieval and humanist concepts, to demonstrate Poliphilo’s transforming interiority, symbolically, metaphorically or allegorically, and established through the character’s encounters during the narrative.