Dante, Commedia, Venice, 1484, modern crushed brown morocco

DANTE ALIGHIERI

La Commedia [with commentary by Christophorus Landinus]. Marsilius Ficinus: Ad Dantem gratulatio [Latin & Italian]. Venice: Octavianus Scotus, 23 March 1484

Chancery folio (316 x 225mm.), 269 leaves (of 270), a¹⁰; b-z & A-H⁸ I-K⁶, 64 lines of commentary plus headline, roman type, woodcut initials, 2- and 3-line initial spaces with printed guides, woodcut printer's device in red beneath register, later crushed brown morocco, gilt edges, protective dust-jacket, lacking a1 (preface, supplied in facsimile), o3 torn without loss but affecting text, occasional light staining, K1 damaged and repaired with slight loss, last leaf remargined, a few small wormholes at beginning and end

The second edition to contain Landino's commentary, which was reprinted several more times in the fifteenth century (see lot 183). This edition "is noteworthy for its typographical quality and its attentiveness to the 1481 edition... [It] makes some corrections of Dante's text and provides a denser text block" (Simon Gilson, Reading Dante in Renaissance Italy, 2018, p. 26).

LITERATURE:

ISTC id00030000; Mambelli 11