Dante Early Printed : Comento di christophoro Landino fiorentino sopra la comedia di Danthe alighieri poeta fiorentino

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321

Dante Early Printed

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This edition is one of two very similar Commedie printed in Venice in 1491. These are the first editions of the poem to contain a full cycle of 100 printed illustrations, one for each canto. The two woodcut series share an almost identical iconography and the setting of the text in these editions is also very similar, with the contents of Dante’s poem and Landino’s commentary newly ‘emendato’ (corrected) by Pietro da Figino ‘dell’ordine de frati minori’ [a Franciscan], as the colophon states <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(640);return false;'>r2v</a>. According to the colophon of this edition, it was printed on ‘xviii di nove[m]brio MccccLxxxxi [i.e. 18th November 1491]. This places Plasiis’s edition after the other, which was printed by Bernardinus Benalius and Matteo Capcasa in March 1491.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The woodblocks in Plasiis’ November Commedia are slightly larger and display finer and more detailed carving work than Capacasa’s March edition, which also contains full-page woodcuts at the start of each cantica that are not present in Plasiis’ book. The 100 images are in fact made up of 97 blocks as the image for Par. XIV <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(594);return false;'>o3v</a> is repeated at Par. XVIII <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(612);return false;'>p4v</a>, the image for Par. XVII <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(562);return false;'>m3v</a> is repeated at Par. XXX <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(622);return false;'>q1v</a>, and the image for Par. XXI <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(582);return false;'>n5v</a> is repeated at Par. XXXIII <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(635);return false;'>q8r</a>. The text is presented in the now familiar format of poetic sections surrounded by prose commentary. As with the earlier editions of Landino’s ‘Comento’, the cantiche and cantos (or capitoli as they are called in this edition) are indicated by simple headings. The opening initials of each canto are printed in a larger, white-on-black illustrated type and spaces are left for the inclusion of larger initials at the start of each section of the commentary. These are signalled by guide letters. Running headers announce the cantica and canto number at the top of each page. This edition also includes a ‘Tabula’ <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(649);return false;'>AA1r</a> that allows readers to locate key names via side letters keyed to the page number and printed in the margin of the text. This table is ordered alphabetically, as are the marginal letters when they appear in line. The resulting effect is a little confusing but presents a true innovation in Dantean paratexts, reflecting similar enterprises in editions of Petrarch’s Trionfi and Rime printed in the same shop in 1490. The tablua is bound at the end in this copy but was intended to be placed after the introductory chapters by Landino and Ficino at the start.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The edition closes with a selection of Dante’s canzoni <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(640);return false;'>r2v</a>, three of which had already been printed in Francesco Bonaccorsi’s 1490 edition of the Convivio (produced in Florence) and fourteen of which appear in print for the first time, including the spurious ‘Canzon Francesca’, also known by its first line, ‘Aï faus ris’ <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(648);return false;'>r6v</a>. This intriguing trilingual poem is widely present in the manuscript tradition but only dubiously attributed to Dante [see Dante Alighieri, Rime, ed. Domenico de Robertis (Florence: Le Lettere, 2002), vol. III, pages 243–256]. The separation of the canzoni in this edition not always clearly signalled, with some poems appearing to run directly into the next.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This copy contains marginal annotations in a sixteenth-century[?] hand <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(29);return false;'>B1r</a>, <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(35);return false;'>B4r</a>, <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(39);return false;'>B6r</a>, <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(43);return false;'>B8r</a>, <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(50);return false;'>C3v</a> and <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(56);return false;'>C6v</a>; these are the only visible instance of reader markings within this copy. This copy was originally part of the Spencer Library at Althorp, Northamptonshire, which was largely assembled by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (d. 1834), before passing on by descent to John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer (d. 1910). It was acquired by Enriqueta Rylands (1843-1908) from John Spencer in 1892</p>