FIRST EDITION , rare and sought-after, of the great Summa of medieval thought planned by Dante.
The philosophical and poetic treatise in the vernacular is placed at the crossroads between Dante's youthful poetic experiences, which achieved results of notable formal refinement and complexity of content, and the compositional phase characterized by reflection on human events, in their historical-political articulation and in their otherworldly meaning. In addition to the poetic apprenticeship of the Florentine years, a further premise for the conception of the Convivio is represented by the forced abandonment of civil commitment in favor of the city of Florence and by the expulsion into exile that strengthens the poet's desire for intellectual affirmation. The editio princeps was instead published when interest in the work reached its highest point in late fifteenth-century Florence. The treatise, although unfinished and abandoned by the author, is in fact part of the revival of Dante the lyric presented as a poet-theologian, according to the interpretation of Marsilio Ficino, and the work also lends itself to the nationalistic instances of exaltation of the Medici lordship, also evident in the prologue of the Commentary to Landino's Comedy, also notable for its apologetic and propagandistic aspects. This revaluation of the Convivio materialized in September 1490 in the editio princeps of the treatise, printed in Florence by Francesco Bonaccorsi: this is a relatively early first edition if one considers that the princeps of Dante's Rime dates back to 1518 (Venice, Guglielmo Cerreto), that of the Monarchia to 1559 (Basel, Giovanni Oporino), while one had to wait until 1576 for the Vita Nova (Florence, Bartolomeo Sermatelli) and until 1577 for the De vulgari eloquentia (Paris, Jean Corbon), already published in Vicenza, in 1529, only in Trissino's translation. Goff D36; HC 5954; IGI 367; Pr 6309; BMC VI 673; BSB Ink D-12; GW 7973.