THE EXTREMELY RARE PROSE COMPENDIUM OF PALAZZI.

The Prose Compendium of the Divine Comedy by Giovanni Palazzi, based on the editions commented by Cristoforo Landino and Alessandro Vellutello, is one of the richest editions of woodcuts. The work is illustrated with eighty-nine woodcuts taken from the edition of the Divine Comedy printed by Francesco Marcolini with commentary by Vellutello, which appeared in Venice in 1544: three full-page images and eighty-four on a third or half page, attributed to Marcolini himself, an excellent designer and friend of Titian and Sansovino. The woodcuts, preserved for almost one hundred and fifty years, were acquired by Girolamo Albrizzi, founder in Venice, in the last decades of the seventeenth century, of the renowned Albrizzi printing-publishing company, who decided to reuse them as a figurative commentary on Palazzi's work.
It seems extraordinary that about 90 wooden matrices were preserved for almost 150 years and that they reached Albrizzi, who decided to reuse them. The woods appear damaged in some places, especially along the external edges: their iconographic and cultural importance must still have been extremely strong after more than a century from their creation if it was decided to use them as a figurative commentary on Palazzi's work. They also confirm the oblivion into which Dante fell in the 17th century: for only 3 editions of the Comedy no iconographic apparatus was prepared. Original edition of this almost unknown compendium of the Comedy, with moral intentions, confused by some scholars with the imaginary fourth edition of the 17th century.