VERY SCARCE MINIATURE EDITION OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
PRINTED IN THE 17TH CENTURY

DANTE ALIGHIERI. La Divina Comedia [...] Con gli argomenti, & allegorie per ogni Canto [...]. In Venetia: Appresso Nicolo Misserini, 1629.24mo (92x45 mm). contemporary paperboards with handwritten titles at spine, pp. [6], 510, [24]. Architectural frame at title-page, woodcut initials and tail-pieces.

VERY SCARCE THIRD AND LAST EDITION OF THE DIVINE COMEDY PRINTED IN THE 17TH CENTURY, RENOWNED FOR ITS MICROSCOPIC ITALIC TYPE.

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: Handwritten ownership inscription at title-page.

REFERENCES: De Batines, I, 102; MAMBELLI, Gli Annali delle edizioni dantesche, 55: «Terza ed ultima edizione della “D.C.”, nel secolo XVII; assai rara e singolare per i caratteri corsivi microscopici, modellata su quella del 1613 e riveduta da Angelo Cantini».

Minor wormholes at the margin of the first 70 leaves, some tiny restauration with minor losses of text, but overall a very good copy of this extremely scarce edition in its original paperboards.