EXTREMELY SCARCE EDITION OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
THE SCARCEST OF THE ONLY THREE EDITIONS
PRINTED IN THE 17TH CENTURY

DANTE. La visione. Poema [...]diviso in Inferno, Purgatorio, & Paradiso. In Padova: Per Donato Pasquardi, & compagno, 1629.

16mo (100x70 mm), contemporary full calf with letterings and decorations printed in gold at spine, pp. [6], 608, [32].
Woodcut frame with a phytomorphic decoration and Christ’s monogram at title-page, woodcut initials and head-pieces. In this copy, leaf A2 (blank) is bound before the title-page and the first fly-leaf was pasted to the front paste-down.

THE SECOND AND SCARCEST EDITION OF DANTE’S «DIVINE COMEDY» PRINTED IN THE 17TH CENTURY.

Dante’s allegorical journey through the three reigns of the au-de-là (Hell, Purgatory and Paradise) was a literary device for showing to the corrupted and confused mankind the way to material and spiritual redemption. Hence, the personal stories of the people positioned by the poet in the afterworld become emblems of deviance, punishment or reward in order to direct the behaviour of Dante’s contemporaries. At the same time, the poem gives the present reader an umparalleled repertory about the history, philosophy and antropology of the European Middle Age.

DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321) is the most renowned poets of Italian Literature, considered together with Petrarch and Boccace the father of the modern italian language. He belonged to the Florentine minor aristocracy and was educated at the Franciscan and Domenican Schools, studying philosophy and teology. Friend to the stilnovist poets, due to his critical opinions towards the papacy he was forced to leave Florence and live exiled for the rest of his life. He wrote Latin and Italian works, entering the number of the world classics’ masters with his Comedia, successfully defined «divine» by Boccace.

PROVENANCE: Ex-libris with the name Angeli Bossi at front paste-down.

REFERENCES: DE BATINES, i, 102; HAYM, II, 13; MAMBELLI, Gli Annali delle edizioni dantesche, 54: «Ristampa dell’edizione precedente [1613] per il Leni, in caratteri corsivi. Seconda edizione fatta nel secolo XVII, assai rara [...]. Il titolo “Visione” fu giudicato dal Volpi un “capriccio”, mentre ad altri bibliografi sembrò più conveniente del titolo di “Comedia”».

Minor traces of use and oxidation, slightly short, but overall a very good copy.