La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri, Recata Alla Popolare Intelligenza da Domenico Venturini
Price: $1,750.00
Vellum. Roma: Tipografia Tiberina, 1865. First Edition Thus. Very Good.
Three volumes. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait to Vol. I. First edition thus. Finely bound in full vellum, with two red leather labels to spines, spines lettered, ruled, and decorated to spines, all edges stained red, and marbled endpapers. Very good set, with light soiling to vellum, shallow chipping to spine labels, some splaying to boards, horizontal split to vellum on front board of Vol. II, a touch of staining to spine labels and top edges of Vols. I and II, a few tiny punctures to vellum at joints, some pages lightly toned, and a closed tear to p. 129 in Vol. II. Some odds and ends laid in, including a handwritten sheet of Canto II from Inferno, and a plate from another book with an illustration of St. Thomas Aquinas. Overall, a beautifully bound set. La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy), Dante's allegorical masterpiece, describes Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The narrative poem is regarded as one of the great works of literature and helped standardize the Italian language as we know it today. T.S. Eliot, the influential modernist poet, wrote in an essay, "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third." This edition includes Dante's original Italian text alongside Domenico Venturini's more accessible Italian translation. Item #DA005
