Dante Early Printed : [N]el mezo del camin di nostra uita mi ritrouai per una selua oscura chela diricta uia era smarrita

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321

Dante Early Printed

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This edition of the Commedia is one of three printed in 1472. The name of the printer, Magistro Federico Veronensi, is recorded in the colophon as well as the date the book was produced ‘MCCCCLXXII quintodecimo [cal]alendas Augusti [i.e. 18 July 1472]. It was probably printed in Venice, but this information is not recorded inside the edition itself.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The poem is printed in a single column of roman type, with a typeface somewhat smaller than that of the edition printed in Foligno in 1472. Less attention seems to have been paid to the printing in comparison to the other copies printed in 1472, with no foliation, signatures, or catchwords. There is, moreover, a marked inconsistency in the way the cantos are titled. Some canti are introduced with short rubrics noting a major feature of the narrative, others are marked only by a blank space for the initial capital, and some are separated by two blank lines. Guide letters are occasionally present in the blank spaces at the start of the canti. The start of Paradiso is marked with a larger blank space for the initial capital but is not given a new page. The start of Purgatorio is marked with a smaller space for the initial capital but is placed at the top of a new page. No editor is named in the closing colophon.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The Rylands copy has a number of the original printed pages missing, which have been skilfully replaced by manuscript facsimiles, including the hand-decorated first page of the text [fol. a1]. Other manuscript interventions are present sporadically throughout the text. </p>