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Books, Autographs & Prints

Wednesday 20 November 2024 e Thursday 21 November 2024, 04:00 PM • Rome

14

Alighieri, Dante

(Firenze 1265 - Ravenna 1321)

The Comedy [Commentary by Christophorus Landinus. Edited by Piero da Figino. Added: Pseudo-Dante: The Creed], 1493

Estimate

€ 8.000 - 10.000

Sold

€ 17.730

The price includes buyer's premium

Information

Venice, Matteo Capcasa (of Codeca), 29 November 1493. In 2°. 300 x 205 mm. Spaces for initial letters with guide letters and woodcut initials on a black background, with 97 small vignettes, 3 large full-page woodcuts, one for each canticle, that of the Inferno and the facing page within a beautiful figured border, the first identical to that present in the 1491 edition, the second created especially for this 1493 edition, damp stains on many leaves, mainly on the lower margin, restorations on the last two leaves, contemporary binding in cypress boards and leather, spine redone. Holland House bookplate on the inside cover.

Specialist Notes

Rare illustrated edition of the Comedy , with illustrations illustrating the entire text of the Paradise; «it is judged to be the most beautiful of the illustrated editions of the DC made in Venice in the 15th century; it has an advantage over the one from 1491 for its richer decoration and over the other from 1497 for the typographical execution and the freshness of the wood» (Mambelli 15). Second edition of the Comedy printed by Matteo Capcasa, with Landino's commentary revised by Pietro da Figino (father Mazzanti from Figline); on the printer see De Batines I, 55-57: «Affò [...] opinò che sotto il various names of Matteo da Parma, Matteo Capocasa and Matteo de Chodeca there is truly one and the same printer, which Pezzana denies, maintaining that M. Capocasa and Giovanni di Matteo da Parma are two very distinct printers». The text is preceded by an Apology and the Life of Dante, and followed by the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria reduced to terza rima and attributed to Dante.

Goff D34; HR 5952 = H 5951; Sander 2315; Essling 533; IGI 365; Pr 4996; BMC V 484; GW 7971.