4
Alighieri, Dante
(1265 - Ravenna 1321)
The Comedy [Commentary by Christophorus Landinus]. Addition: Marsilius Ficinus, Ad Dantem gratulatio [in Latin and Italian], 1487
Estimate
€ 40.000 - 60.000
Sold
€ 50.550
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Information
Brescia, Boninus de Boninis, de Ragusia, 31 May 1487. In 2nd. 348 x 222mm. . Roman characters 110:R for the text and 81:R for the commentary, blank spaces for initials, illustrated with 68 splendid full-page woodcuts attributable to two different artists and enclosed within decorated woodcut frames on a criblé background, previously used in the Catullus printed by de' Bonini in 1485, typographical brand on a black background and the initials “BB” on the verso of the penultimate leaf, tear in the lower white margin of c.a2, c paper healed and restored on the outer margin, c.o2 small restored hole, EXCELLENT example in SPLENDID FULL BROWN LEATHER BINDING from the 19th century with gold inscriptions on the boards (title and typographical data) and refined phytomorphic decorations on the spine, gold edges, defects on the hinges, binding by the famous bookbinder Katharine Adams (1862 – 1952) carried out in 1904. Ex libris on the Alfred Acland 's front cover, subsequently passed to the library of CH St John Hornby Shelley House, Chenlsea in December 1923. Another handwritten ownership note on leaf I, perhaps in a 17th century hand.
Specialist Notes
Second illustrated edition of the Comedy, but first edition with illustrations of Hell and Purgatory. «[...] it can be said to be the first truly illustrated edition of Dante's poem, since that of 1481 (of which the present one is an exact copy as regards the text) is adorned with a few engravings» Mambelli, 12. One of the most successful editions of the Comedy, considered the model for all the illustrated Venetian editions that appeared later.
"The edition of the Comedy published in Brescia by Bonino Bonini, as the colophon states, «il dì ultimo di mazo MCCCCLXXXVII» occupies a leading role in the Dante bibliography. The merit does not lie in the particular textual care (it is in fact the eleventh edition in chronological order of the poem, here reprinted with the commentary by Cristoforo Landino, published for the first time in Florence in 1481), but in the large iconographic corpus that makes it the second illustrated edition in absolute terms, after the Florentine one printed by Niccolò di Lorenzo in 1481 (ISTC id00029000). In the Florentine one, only the first 19 cantos of the Inferno are accompanied by the same number of copper plates engraved by Baccio Baldini based on drawings attributed to Sandro Botticelli. For this reason, the Brescia edition of 1487, entirely illustrated (albeit with some misunderstandings) up to the first canto of the Paradiso, can rightly be considered the first successful attempt in print to illustrate the entire Dante poem. The edition is adorned with 68 well-known woodcuts, often cited, as can also be deduced from the bibliography collected in the appendix, but never the object of an analytical study." ( Giancarlo Petrella , Dante Alighieri, Commedia Brescia, Bonino Bonini, 1487 Iconographic Repertory of Woodcuts , Milan, 2012).
The woodcuts have been assigned to two different hands, one of whom also produced the woodcuts for Bonino's edition of Aesop in the same year; they have also been linked to the artist Giovanni Antonio da Brescia. In the woodcuts of the Inferno the action generally moves from top to bottom within each illustration, while in the Purgatorio it moves from bottom to top. The single woodcut for Paradiso appears to refer to a later canto, not Canto I, but was presumably placed at the beginning, being the only illustration for the entire canticle. Manuscript copies of Dante were illustrated after 1330, and even then many of them do not have a complete set of illustrations (although the Inferno is usually fully illustrated). Most manuscripts were produced in Florence, where there was the greatest demand for Dante's works, so the appearance of the first printed editions in Brescia and Venice in the 1480s represents a change in the Dante market beyond the borders of Tuscany. The illustrative cycle of this edition was an impressive strategy by Bonino that gave his book a considerable commercial advantage over all his competitors, who later imitated him. Mambelli 12; HC* 5948; Goff D, 31; BMC VII, 971; IGI 362; Sander 2312.
"The edition of the Comedy published in Brescia by Bonino Bonini, as the colophon states, «il dì ultimo di mazo MCCCCLXXXVII» occupies a leading role in the Dante bibliography. The merit does not lie in the particular textual care (it is in fact the eleventh edition in chronological order of the poem, here reprinted with the commentary by Cristoforo Landino, published for the first time in Florence in 1481), but in the large iconographic corpus that makes it the second illustrated edition in absolute terms, after the Florentine one printed by Niccolò di Lorenzo in 1481 (ISTC id00029000). In the Florentine one, only the first 19 cantos of the Inferno are accompanied by the same number of copper plates engraved by Baccio Baldini based on drawings attributed to Sandro Botticelli. For this reason, the Brescia edition of 1487, entirely illustrated (albeit with some misunderstandings) up to the first canto of the Paradiso, can rightly be considered the first successful attempt in print to illustrate the entire Dante poem. The edition is adorned with 68 well-known woodcuts, often cited, as can also be deduced from the bibliography collected in the appendix, but never the object of an analytical study." ( Giancarlo Petrella , Dante Alighieri, Commedia Brescia, Bonino Bonini, 1487 Iconographic Repertory of Woodcuts , Milan, 2012).
The woodcuts have been assigned to two different hands, one of whom also produced the woodcuts for Bonino's edition of Aesop in the same year; they have also been linked to the artist Giovanni Antonio da Brescia. In the woodcuts of the Inferno the action generally moves from top to bottom within each illustration, while in the Purgatorio it moves from bottom to top. The single woodcut for Paradiso appears to refer to a later canto, not Canto I, but was presumably placed at the beginning, being the only illustration for the entire canticle. Manuscript copies of Dante were illustrated after 1330, and even then many of them do not have a complete set of illustrations (although the Inferno is usually fully illustrated). Most manuscripts were produced in Florence, where there was the greatest demand for Dante's works, so the appearance of the first printed editions in Brescia and Venice in the 1480s represents a change in the Dante market beyond the borders of Tuscany. The illustrative cycle of this edition was an impressive strategy by Bonino that gave his book a considerable commercial advantage over all his competitors, who later imitated him. Mambelli 12; HC* 5948; Goff D, 31; BMC VII, 971; IGI 362; Sander 2312.
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