• Poliphilo (pictured), the main character in the Renaissance book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was said to have felt "extreme delight," "incredible joy," and "frenetic pleasure and cupidinous frenzy" when he saw the buildings depicted in the book?

Facts on topics related to Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Rome

• Kermit Roosevelt's co-brother-in-law Mervyn Herbert played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club and died in the British Embassy in Rome, Italy?
• British athlete Don Thompson was nicknamed "Il Topolino" (Italian for "Little Mouse") when he raced to victory in the 50km walk at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while wearing a képi and sunglasses ?
• Alan de St Edmund, while in Rome as chaplain to Cardinal Hugh of Evesham, was made Bishop of Caithness after its previous bishop-elect died there while seeking consecration?
• Eddisbury hill fort, the largest and most complex Iron Age hill fort in Cheshire, was destroyed by the Romans to prevent it being used against them?
• Ethelbert of York's 8th century library was probably the largest book collection of its day outside of Rome?
• Flaithbertach Ua Néill, king of Ailech in Ireland, was called Flaithbertach an Trostáin, Flaithbertach of the Pilgrim's staff, as a result of his pilgrimage to Rome in 1030?
• Jakub Uchański, a 16th-century primate of Poland, was suspected of heresy and summoned to appear before the inquisition in Rome?
• John Devitt was awarded a gold medal in the 100m freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome despite all three timekeepers awarding a faster time to the silver medallist?
• Michael Stern was one of two journalists to enter Rome on June 3, 1944, one day ahead of American forces?
• Monte Testaccio (pictured) in Rome is an artificial hill, 35 m (115 ft) high and 1 km (3,300 ft) in circumference, consisting entirely of the fragments of 53 million ancient Roman amphorae?

Novel

• 49 of Egyptian novelist Ihsan Abdel Quddous's novels have had film adaptations?
• Alistair Beaton predicted the flooding of New Orleans in his 2004 satirical novel A Planet for the President?
• Charles Dickens wrote his novels Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities at his Tavistock House home?
• F. Sionil José's Viajero (The Wanderer) is a novel about a Filipino boy adopted by an African-American soldier?
• Jacek Dukaj's Black Oceans, a Polish science-fiction novel, received the Janusz A. Zajdel Award Polish award for sci-fi literature in 2001?
• novelist Charles Dickens received news of the death in India of his son Walter Landor Dickens on his own birthday on February 7, 1864?
• Peter Benchley wanted to write about pirates, but editor Thomas Congdon preferred his idea for a novel about sharks that became the bestseller Jaws?
• Reginald Hill's novel "A Clubbable Woman" was his first story about Dalziel and Pascoe?
• Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard composed the music for Space Jazz – a concept album companion to his science fiction novel Battlefield Earth?
• Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's SF novel To the Stars was nominated for a 2001 "Retro" Hugo Award?

Renaissance

• Ada Louise Huxtable called Portland, Oregon's Keller Fountain Park "one of the most important urban spaces since the Renaissance"?
• Doge Andrea Vendramin of the Republic of Venice has what is generally agreed to be "the most lavish funerary monument of Renaissance Venice" in the basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo?
• Renaissance composer, instrumentalist and copyist Pierre Alamire was also a spy for Henry VIII, until he was revealed as a double agent?
• Będzin Castle (pictured), an important fortress in medieval Poland, fell into disrepair in the Renaissance era, was almost demolished in the 19th century and was rebuilt only in the 1950s?
• Nicolas des Escuteaux's novels are regarded as more adventurous than sentimental, and show the influence of the Renaissance Hispano-Portuguese adventure novel?
• Stamp mills, first used during the Renaissance in such diverse industries as paper making, oil-seed processing, and ore refining, work to crush their material by repeatedly dropping heavy weights on them?
• Poliphilo (pictured), the main character in the Renaissance book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was said to have felt "extreme delight," "incredible joy," and "frenetic pleasure and cupidinous frenzy" when he saw the buildings depicted in the book?
• Italian painter Parmigianino distorted nature for his own artistic purposes in the unfinished Renaissance oil painting Madonna with the Long Neck (pictured)?
• King Henry VIII was a talented musician and composer, and his song Pastime with Good Company became a popular tune throughout Renaissance Europe and remains a choral favorite?
• according to the controversial Hockney-Falco thesis, the rise of realism in Renaissance art, such as Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, was largely due to the use of curved mirrors and other optical aids?