Observations placeholder
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Raven
Identifier
008157
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was written by Francesco Colonna, a Dominican friar in the 16th century. The book describes the allegorical journey of the spiritual traveller and in the course of the book just about every symbolic spiritual feature is incorporated into the story.
Poliphili is driven by love, love is essentially the reason for living and this permeates the whole book. And one of the features he has to traverse is a cemetary filled with the tombs of those who have died for love. In the picture below we can see a fragment of tomb, and just visible the raven standing guard over it, with an oil lamp.