Dante Early Printed : Proemio : 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 folio format edition was printed by the Venetian Octavianus Scotus ‘Adi .xxiii. di Marzo .M.cccc.Lxxxiiii’ [i.e. 23 March 1484]. It is the second edition to contain Cristoforo Landino’s ‘Commento’, an extensive vernacular gloss on Dante’s text. Both the poem and the commentary are printed in roman typeface, with the commentary in a slightly smaller font. The cantos are neatly and consistently divided by capitalised sub-titles which announce the canto and cantica numbers. Running headers at the top of each page display the cantica (on the verso) and canto number (on the recto), making it possible for the reader to orient themselves within the text. Spaces with guide letters are left for the inclusion of larger initial capitals at the start of each section of the commentary and the first letter of each canto is printed with a white-on-black floriated initial that is considerably larger than the rest of the font. The start of each cantica is marked with an even larger white-on-black floriated initial.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The Rylands holds three copies of this edition. This copy is complete and in good condition. The missing initials are not filled in and the pages are without rubrication. An unidentified, interlaced monogram stamp in black ink with the letters FG (F above and overlapping G), probably nineteenth-century, is visible on <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>a1r</a>, <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(544);return false;'>K5v</a> and <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(545);return false;'>K6r</a>. The binding is in full dark green goatskin over wooden boards, crafted by William Pitt Pratt, who operated as a binder in London from 1823 to 1838. The <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(1);return false;'>front cover</a> and <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(552);return false;'>back cover</a> feature the nineteenth-century monogram of The John Rylands Library, JR within a roundel, stamped in gilt.</p>