Dante Early Printed : Comedia di Danthe Alighieri poeta diuino: co[n] l'espositione di Christophoro La[n]dino: nuouame[n]te impressa: e con somma...

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321

Dante Early Printed

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This edition, printed in Venice by Iacob del Burgofranco is the last edition to reuse the format of the 1491 Venetian Commedie. A large, folio size book, this edition combines Landino’s commentary with Bembo’s text of the poem, first printed by Aldus Manutius in 1502 (see R213786). The paratextual material is expanded with sidenotes now included alongside the introductory matter <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>Aa3r</a>. The title for the section on the ‘SITO FORMA, ET MISURA DELLONFERNO’ <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(25);return false;'>Bb5r</a> is printed in markedly larger format which signals its out as somewhat of a separate treatise. Other paratextual additions include a new running title (printed along the lower long edge of each recto) labelling the text ‘DANTHE’. A running title on the upper long edge declares the cantica (on the verso) and canto number (on the recto) to allow readers to orient themselves in the poem.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The use of decorative printing techniques is particularly noticeable in this edition. The title page displays an elaborate border showing classical and vernacular poets above nine classical muses, with the title printed in red and black inks <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(5);return false;'>Aa1r</a>. This is followed by the first portrait of the author <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(6);return false;'>Aa1v</a> in a printed edition. Dante appears in profile to the right, with a laurel wreath over a hood with a long liripipe, above a linen coif. A rectangular plaque: DANTHE ALIGHIERI, is above and to the left of his head. The whole is enclosed within a simple rectangular frame. Headpieces and decorated initials appear throughout as do 99 illustrations for each canto of the poem, apart from Inferno II.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>These illustrations are the product of a remarkable reuse of the woodblocks first printed in the two Venetian editions of 1491. The large rectangular blocks first printed in Capcasa’s March 1491 edition (R64485) are reprinted at the start of each cantica. The image for Inf. I <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(28);return false;'>Bb6v</a> is enclosed in the same decorative border present on the title page <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(5);return false;'>Aa1r</a>. The rest of the images are reprints of the small square blocks also printed in Capcasa’s March 1491 edition (R64485), apart from the illustration to Par. XXVIII <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(589);return false;'>K2r</a> which repeats the substitution present in Burgofranco’s 1507 Commedia, using a block from the larger series first printed by Petrus de Plasiis in November 1491 (Spencer 5121), originally used to illustrate Par. XXVII. Since the correct image was lacking from this series from its first printing, this edition actually displays the image for Par. XXVII in its place, the same replacement made in Quarengiis’ 1497 edition, which also uses these prints.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This copy contains sixteenth-century manuscript study notes, underlining and maniculae. On the <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(2);return false;'>inner front cover</a> it bears the pictorial bookplate of Richard Charles Jackson (1851-1923), a wealthy collector and scholar who was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and vice-president of the Dante Society of London. Jackson’s name is also recorded in a manuscript inscription on the <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>front endpaper recto</a>. A manuscript note and modern sale catalogue pasted on the <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(2);return false;'>inner front cover</a> refer to Walter Llewellyn Bullock (1890-1944), an academic and promoter of Italian studies. This book was donated to The University of Manchester in 1944 by Hélène Louise Bullock, widow of Walter Llewellyn Bullock, whose collection was later transferred The John Rylands Library.</p>