Dante, Opere, Venice, Stagnino, 1520, later calf

Dante Alighieri

Opere del divino poeta Danthe con suoi comenti et con ogne diligentia novamente in littera cursiva impresse. (Venice: Bernardino Stagnino, 1520)

4to (214 x 150mm.), title printed in red within a woodcut border and with woodcut printer's device, woodcut initials and illustrations (that opposite the start of the text full-page), later calf, occasional staining

This is Stagnino's second quarto edition of Dante (the first was in 1512), containing the Comedia only, and using the same woodblocks. The commentary is that of Landino and the text based on Bembo's, and the title-page even advertises that the text is now printed in italic type (following Aldus, but an innovation for larger format editions).

This copy contains manuscript notes on the rear flyleaves, written "in memoria mee passionis" by someone who was leaving Casale Monferrato on Sunday 4 June 1525 at the eighth hour to go on pilgrimage to Venice and the Holy Land.

LITERATURE:

Edit16 1156; Sander 2325

PROVENANCE:

Alessandro Canonici, printed label pasted to foot of full-page woodcut; Don Carlo Canonici-Mattei, duca di Giove (of Ferrara, died 1901), printed paper label pasted to spine with manuscript shelfmark