Dante, [Comedia], Venice, Sessa, 1564, later marbled calf with arms of Jarente de Sénas

Dante Alighieri

Dante con l'espositione di Christoforo Landino, et di Alessandro Vellutello, sopra la sua comedia dell'Inferno, del Purgatorio, et del Paradiso. Con tavole, argomenti, & allegorie, & riformato, riveduto, & ridotto alla sua vera lettura, di Francesco Sansovino. Venice: Giovambattista and Marchiò Sessa and brothers (Domenico Nicolini), 1564

folio (303 x 210mm.), woodcut portrait of Dante within an elaborate cartouche on title-page, woodcut illlustrations, woodcut initials and headpieces, woodcut printer's device at end, eighteenth-century marbled calf with gilt arms of Jarente de Sénas [Olivier 931], spine gilt in compartments, red edges, occasional light soiling or browning, a few small marginal tears, MM5 with a long tear, armorials rubbed

This is the first edition to combine the two great commentaries on Dante, those by Cristoforo Landino (first printed in 1481) and by Alessandro Vellutello (first printed in 1544), and it is the first Sansovino edition. The text was based on Bembo's with summaries and allegories supplied by Sansovino. The woodblocks are from the 1544 Marcolini edition which would also be used in later Sessa editions of 1578 and 1596.

LITERATURE:

Edit16 1171; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 148

PROVENANCE:

Balthazar-Alexandre de Jarente, marquis de Sénas et d'Orgeval (1691-1768), arms on binding; "Proviene dal conte Carlo Cacherano di Bricherasia del castello di Bricherasio", note on I5; Antiquariato Walter Toscanini, Milan, catalogue, 1927, no.34 and Libreria Lombarda, Milan, catalogues, 1927 no.306 and 1928 no.478, notes on flyleaf