The editorial fortune of the Divine Comedy (thirteen editions within nineteen years, between 1472 and 1491) reached its apex with the monumental Venetian edition published by Pietro Piasi on November 18, 1491. It is a big in-folio, with large page margins holding the text of the poem "amended" by Pietro da Figino (a 14th Century Dominican scholar), and Cristoforo Landino's recent commentary (Florence 1481). The book is enriched with 97 engraved vignettes, three large full-page wood engravings included within decorated borders, and very fine initials. The volume is also the first to hold the fifteen “canzoni” of Dante not included in the “Convivio” (fols. r2V-r6v).
Dante Alighieri, Father of the Modern Italian Language
Universally known as one the greatest poets of all eras and schools of literature, Dante Alighieri left us the highest testament to Western Middle Age civilization, to which the modern era is deeply indebted.
Italy owes Dante Alighieri for his ingenious choice of adopting the Italian vernacular at a time when Latin was still the standard for literary work. Dante modeled the Italian language adapting it to the needs of literary writing, thus heavily influencing formation of the Italian language as it is spoken today. Thanks to his remarkable achievement – for which he is properly recognized as the «father of Italian language» – his Divine Comedy is the only medieval masterpiece which is still readable in the original version, without translation.
The Divine Comedy, a Journey to God
As we know, the "Divina Commedia" depicts a journey: a sublime report of the redeeming passage conducted by Dante after being lost in the “selva oscura” (dark forest). A journey undertaken with the guidance of Virgil, then Beatrice, and lastly Saint Bernard, who leads him to the bliss of paradise.
During his trials, Dante Alighieri passes through the three realms of the afterlife: Hell, the place of eternal suffering, where sinners receive retribution for their deeds; Purgatory, where repentant sinners make restitution for their sins and purify themselves in order to ascend to Heaven; and, finally, Heaven itself, containing the blessed souls (those who accomplished Purgatory's purification), along with the saints and all those divine beings deserving the bliss of the Empyrean (God's heaven).
A Successful Best-seller in Manuscript and Printed Copies
The Divine Comedy immediately received a receptive audience, as proven by the dissemination of more than 2000 manuscript copies prior to 1480, when the diffusion of printing technology radically changed people's relationships with texts. Of those manuscripts, often provided with glosses, notes or extended commentaries, and sometimes with precious iconographic settings, only about 800 survived: the rest are lost to time, along with Dante's autographs.
The vast textual tradition of the Divine Comedy has posed significant challenges in the philological efforts to restore its original readings. This difficulty arises from the individual errors made by copyists, which were then perpetuated and magnified by subsequent scribes, rendering a multitude of variations due to the sheer volume of existing copies.
In response to this complex textual situation, the printed editions of the Divine Comedy sought to address these issues by producing an "amended" or revised text. These editions aimed to be more standardized and readable, often accompanied by commentaries and embellished with copperplate and wood engravings.
Hand-written Notes and Decorations
A copy of such a precious and rare edition was later re-elaborated by a learned reader (identified for a long time as the text editor declared in the print, Pietro da Figino), who added dense handwritten notes in the margins and supervised the execution of a rich iconographic apparatus along the three cantiche: it consists of more than 400 pages filled with wide figures, vignettes and high-quality decorations, framing Dante's text, Landino's commentary and forming a suitable pictorial commentary to the poem.
The book's decoration – ascribed to Antonio Grifo (Venice, ca. 1430-1510) – was executed shortly after the printing, in homage to Galeazzo Sanseverino, son of Roberto, commander in chief of the Sforza army, and, since 1496, married to Ludovico il Moro's daughter, Bianca.
With this exception, nothing else about the history of this volume is known up until its appearance on the antiquarian book market in 1927, where it was purchased by the then Italian minister of Education Pietro Fedele, representing the Italian government, and subsequently offered to the Casa di Dante in Rome. There it remains today, as "the most precious item" in an already prestigious library.
We have 1 facsimile edition of the manuscript "Divine Comedy - 1491 Illustrated Incunabulum": Comedia di Dante con Figure Dipinte facsimile edition, published by Salerno Editrice, 2014
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