Dante Early Printed : Dantis Aligerii poetae Florentini Inferni capitulum primum incipit

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321

Dante Early Printed

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This folio format edition was printed in Venice in 1478 by Filippo di Pietro. The colophon refers to Doge Andrea Vendramino, who died on 6 May 1478, providing an ante quam date for the print run. This was not the first vernacular poem printed by Filippo di Pietro, who had produced an edition of Cecco d’Ascoli’s Acerba Aetas in 1476. Unlike his edition of Ascoli’s Acerba, Filippo di Pietro’s edition of the Commedia does not include a ‘tavola’, or table of contents. Dante’s poem is presented in a double column format, with blank spaces left at the start of each canto, for which guide letters are sporadically provided. The divisions between the canti occur in the middle of the page and are announced with short, formulaic titles indicating the cantica and the canto number. The division between the cantiche is signalled in much the same way, with slightly longer rubrics in capital letters announcing the name of the poet as well as the cantica and canto number <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(73);return false;'>e1r</a>; <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(141);return false;'>i3r</a>. The first two verses of Inferno are printed in capitals and the first two verses of all three cantiche are printed over several lines to create space for the missing initial capital. The edition concludes with two short poems written by the editor, C. Lucius Laelius, one in the vernacular describing his editorial work (‘Ancor laetate’), the other an invocation in Latin to the classical god Jupiter (‘Iuppiter o[mn]ipote[ns]’).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The missing initial for the start of the first verse of Inferno <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>a2r</a> has been added by hand in this copy, which was originally part of the Spencer Library at Althorp, Northamptonshire, largely assembled by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, before passing by descent to John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, from whom it was acquired by Enriqueta Rylands (1843-1908) for The John Rylands Library in 1892.</p>