Title: La Comedia di Dante Alighieri con la nova esposizione di Alessandro Vellutello, 1544
Author: Dante Alighieri; Alessandro Vellutello
Publisher: In Venezia, Per Francesco Marcolini
Condition: Very Good
A mid 16th century first edition of the Vellutello edition of Dante’s great poetical work, The Divine Comedy, featuring a celebrated commentary by the former.
This work contains 83 of 87 beautiful woodcuts depicting various scenes of the afterlife, with this edition being the first to use this extremely influential series of woodcuts. There are two of three full page woodcuts of Purgatory and Paradise respectively, announcing each part of the poem. The woodcut of Hell is lacking.
"While the fifteenth-century blocks could serve as a quick reference for figures in the text, these 1544 blocks are an extension of the commentary, a more instructive form of illustration" (Harvard, Italian, 146). The woodcuts themselves reappeared in several editions by the Sessa brothers, being the 1564, 1578, and 1596 printings, and 79 of the original blocks were used in Palazzi's Compendio della Comedia di Dante Alighieri.
This edition integrates the triplet “Dianzi uenimmo inanzi a uoi un poce”, stamped at the foot of the V7 recto, which is normally found lacking due to printing oversight, thus marking it as the June 1544 imprint.
This copy is lacking the title page, as well as five leaves from the dedication to Pope Paul III, with the loss of three woodcuts from the dedication, and the first full page woodcut to Hell. The rest of the Comedia itself is textually complete.
One vellum bound volume in quarto, 435 of 442 leaves.
This volume is in very good shape, with minor rubbing and old staining to the binding. There is some restoration to the margins of some of the dedication leaves, as well as the first leaf of Canto I. There is some foxing and staining throughout.