Dante con l'espositione di Christoforo Landino, Venice, 1564, later olive morocco with arms of Salm-Salm

Dante Alighieri

Dante con l'espositione di Christophoro Landino, et di Alessandro Vellutello, sopra la sua Comedia. Venice: (Domenico Nicolini for) Giovambattista and Melchiorre Sessa and brothers, 1564

folio (311 x 210mm.), woodcut portrait of Dante on title-page, woodcut initials, illustrations and cartouches, later olive (or faded navy?) morocco with arms of Prince Salm-Salm [Olivier 2215] and of the Society of Writers to the Signet, gilt edges, title-page slightly foxed with small repaired section at foredge, BB3 torn with slight loss at head, a few leaves lightly browned or foxed, last leaf slightly creased, joints cracked, spine ends chipped

This is the first edition to combine the two great commentaries on Dante, those by Cristoforo Landino (first printed in 1481) and by Alessandro Vellutello (first printed in 1544), and it is the first Sansovino edition. The text was based on Bembo's with summaries and allegories supplied by Sansovino. The woodblocks are from the 1544 Marcolini edition which would also be used in later Sessa editions of 1578 and 1596.

LITERATURE:

Edit16 1171; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 148

PROVENANCE:

Prince Ludwig Karl Otto zu Salm (1721-1778), arms on binding; Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet, Edinburgh, sale, Sotheby's, 11 April 1960, lot 1143, bought by A.G. Thomas for £24; Clifford Baylis, bookplate; by family descent