Dante, [Comedia], Venice, Aldus, 1515, later vellum, Joseph Smith's copy

DANTE ALIGHIERI

[Comedia] Dante col sito, et forma dell'Inferno. (Venice: in the house of Aldus Manutius and Andrea Torresani, August 1515)

8vo (168 x 100mm.), woodcut Aldine device on title-page and a1 [Fletcher 5], one device with lettering ALDO and the other ALDUS, italic type, woodcut illustrations at end, later vellum, green morocco lettering-piece, UNCUT at foredge and at foot, erased inscriptions beneath both devices, very small paper repair at lower corner of H4

The first two leaves and the final quire (H) are printed on slightly shorter paper; according to UCLA, this is a second state of the printing which has the different setting of the dedication on *1v-*2r, a double dash in the title ("De= / scrittione") and does not have the final leaf H8 with device (though the register still states that H is also a quatterno). In the final quire, H, the sewing appears between H3 and H4; H5-6 (the double-page view of Hell) has been tipped in. However, there is still a blank H7 which is conjoint with an earlier leaf in H.

LITERATURE:

Aldo Manuzio tipografo 133.7; Renouard 73/8; UCLA 136.5; cf. Edit16 1150 & Texas 124 (different setting)

PROVENANCE:

Joseph Smith, British consul at Venice, armorial bookplate (mostly obscured), though this edition not listed in Bibliotheca Smithiana (1755); Lord Sandys, armorial bookplate