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 edition was printed by Octavianus Scotus in Venice, ‘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 missing first 10 leaves (all of quire a, equivalent to Landino’s prologue, Ficino’s letter, and Landino’s short treatise on the ‘Sito et forma dell’Inferno’) and final leaf K6 (equivalent to the printer’s register). Leaves <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>b1</a> and <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(519);return false;'>K5</a> are heavily repaired around the outer margins with loss of some printed text which has been replaced in manuscript, and leaf <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(391);return false;'>B3</a> is torn and was repaired using red wax and small pieces of paper. This copy also displays occasional manuscript marginal annotations in two hands, one sixteenth-century, the other seventeenth-century, with particularly noteworthy examples on <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(105);return false;'>h4r</a>, <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(139);return false;'>k5r</a> and <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(520);return false;'>K5v</a>. The missing initials for commentary sections are supplied in alternating red and blue with occasional capital strokes in yellow.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This copy was donated to the John Rylands Library in May 1951 by Sir John J. Conybeare in memory of his father Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare, as is recorded by a bookplate on the <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(2);return false;'>inner front cover</a>. A manuscript inscription in black ink on the paper repair at head of leaf <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>b1r</a> reads "Irene Hervey", who was John’s sister.</p>