Dante Alighieri: La Commedia.
Commentary by Christophorus Landinus. Add: Marsilius Ficinus: Ad Dantem gratulatio [Latin & Italian].
Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus, 30 Aug. 1481.
Fol. <i ii iii>8 [*]6 a10 b8 c-e10 f8 g10 h-i8 l10 m-n8 o-r10 s6 aa-gg10 hh12 ll-mm10 oo6 <aaa A>8 B-H10 I6 L12. [372] leaves (1, 14, 15, 169, 371 and 372 blank).
20 copper engravings are known, attributed to Baccio Baldini from designs by Sandro Botticelli, to accompany the first 19 cantos of the 'Inferno' - cf. ISTC.
ISTC id00029000; Goff D29; BMC VI 628 (IB. 27095b); Bod-inc D-012; GW 7966.
| Accession number: | 167509 |
| Variants: | oo6v, line 54: “... per ſua infinita miſericordia ... || FINE DELLA SECONDA CANTI||CA ...” as GW’s main transcription, not as Bod-inc “per sua instituta misericordia ... || FINISCE LA SECONDA CANTI||CA ...”; aaa1r, lines 48-9: “... finalmen||te ...” as Bod-inc. |
| Note: | This copy has copper engravings before cantos 1-3 of the 'Inferno' only, that before canto 1 being slightly cropped; the engraving before canto 3 is a more heavily inked repeat of the one belonging to canto 2. |
| Provenance: | Maurice Ogle & Son, booksellers, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow (1832-1871): sold book to William Euing. William Euing (1788-1874), insurance broker, Glasgow: purchased from Ogle 23 May 1848 according to Euing’s pencil acquisition note with price code “23 5 48 ca/f Og” on front pastedown. Stirling’s Public Library (now part of the Mitchell Library), Glasgow: bookplate on front free endpaper inscribed “A Donation from Wm. Euing Esq”. |
| Binding: | 18th-century half vellum, grey paper-covered pasteboards; gilt spine title and a manuscript paper title affixed to spine; dark green-edged leaves. Size: 350 x 258 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 342 x 255 mm. |
| Annotations: | Frequent marginal annotations in Italian (generally extracting names and keywords) together with underlining in a 18th-century hand in the 'Inferno'; several marginal annotations in the 'Purgatorio' in a different 18th-century hand; letter “D” (duplicate?) in pencil on front pastedown together with a 19th-century note in pencil on the three engraved plates; 19th-century annotations “S121” and “DQ” in pencil, “2005” in black ink, and initials “J M B” in purple ink on front pastedown; 19th-century number “31” in pencil on rear pastedown. |
| Decoration: | None. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting [*1] and the six blank leaves; many leaves at beginning and end badly water-damaged (several re-margined); some running headlines cropped. |
