Dante [Alighieri]

DIVINA COMMEDIA]; [THE DIVINE COMEDY with the supposed commentary of Benvenuto da Imola]. (Incipit:) Qui comincia la vita e costumi dello excellente poeta vulgari Dante Alighieri di Firenze honore e gloria delidioma fiorentino

      Venice: Vindelinus de Spira, 1477. First edition with commentary of the Divine Comedy and the fifth overall and probably the earliest obtainable printing. Folio, antique, but later calf over boards, probably of the early 19th or very late period of the 18th century. The spine panel ruled and decorated in blind, lettered in blind. A pleasing copy, generously margined, this copy textually complete containing the complete COMMEDIA as printed as well as the additional Dante material, but without the preliminary introductory materials concerning the author, as is sometimes the case. Antique calligraphy to the lower fore-edge as would be typical in the Renaissance.. VERY RARE AND OF THE GREATEST IMPORTANCE. First edition of the Divine Comedy with commentary and the fifth absolute. The present edition, printed by Vindelinus who also printed the Petrarca, shows his clear intention of publishing the great Italian authors and considering them at the same level as the traditional Latin ones. In fact, the text of the Divine Comedy is proposed together with BenvenutoOs commentary, though in reality the author was Iacopo della Lana. At the end of the poem we also find the Credo, some poems of Busone da Gubbio, a sonnet, wrongly ascribed to Boccaccio by the tradition, and another sonnet having the function of colophon, ascribed to the editor Cristoforo Berardi da Pesaro. So this can be considered the first edition of DanteOs great poem published with historical and didactic purpose. The gothic type used by Vindelinus bears witness to the reference of the printer to the manuscript tradition and to the printed tradition of religious works. It is interesting to note that, even as the adjective OdivineO would be utilized to define the poem in the edition of 1555 by Giolito, in the ordinary final sonnet the word appears referring to the poet himself ("inclito e divo Dante"). ODanteOs theme, the greatest yet attempted in poetry, was to explain and justify the Christian cosmos through the allegory of a pilgrimage. To him comes Virgil, the symbol of philosophy, to guide him through the two lower realms of the next world, which are divided according to the classifications of the OEthicsO of Aristotle. Hell is seen as an inverted cone with its point where lies Lucifer fixed in ice at the centre of the world, and the pilgrimage from it a climb to the foot of and then up the Purgatorial Mountain. Along the way Dante passes Popes, Kings and Emperors, poets, warriors and citizens of Florence, expiating the sins of their life on earth. On the summit is the Earthly Paradise where Beatrice meets them and Virgil departs. Dante is now led through the various spheres of heaven, and the poem ends with a vision of the Deity. The audacity of his theme, the success of its treatment, the beauty and majesty of his verse, have ensured that his poem never lost its reputation. The picture of divine justice is entirely unclouded by DanteOs own political prejudices, and his language never falls short of what he describes.O PMM