Unique uncommon edition.
Member of the Florentine Academy, Bonanni was in contact with other Florentine writers, first of all Grazzini. Together with Varchi, Gelli and Giambullari, and Grazzini himself he was part of the Reformers of the Florentine language. "In 1572 the Florentine noble Vincenzo Buonanni published a commentary on the Inferno as the first stage of the project of a complete commentary on Dante's poem, but destined to stop at this Discourse on the first cantica of the 'Commedia'. The reasons for this incompleteness are still unknown today, as is the entire biographical story of the writer. One of the few certain data is Buonanni's membership of the Florentine Academy, that is, the cultural institution, commissioned directly by the Medici Lordship, which starting from the mid-sixteenth century the task of promoting studies on Dante's work. In the public readings dedicated to the Poet's verses we find the origin of Buonanni's volume, which stands out from other academics for two particularities: one, purely orthographic, and one, broader, of a historical type. Buonanni in fact proposes his own linguistic reform, inviting us to distinguish the deaf and harsh zeta, like tz, from the soft zeta, preserved as z; furthermore, since the Proem, which precedes the actual commentary on the songs of Hell, he shows his adherence to the principles of the now prevailing Counter-Reformation, to which he submits out of profound conviction. Proceeding through the volume, the individual songs are followed by a set of explanatory notes, with which the commentator explains the verses of Hell, demonstrating the breadth of his knowledge, from literature to history, from philosophy to religion, from linguistics to philology and recovery of the ancient Dante codes." (from the Salerno edition edited by Stefano Pavarini).