Francesco Colonna

Little is known of Colonna. He lived in Venice, and preached at St Mark's Cathedral there. Besides Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, he definitely wrote an Italian epic poem called Delfili Somnium, the "Dream of Delfilo;" this poem went unpublished in his lifetime and was not in fact published until 1959. Colonna spent part of his life in the monastery of St John and St Paul in Venice, but the monastery was apparently not of the strictest observance and Colonna was granted leave to live outside its walls.