Dante, Le terze rime, Venice, Aldo, 1502, illuminated, contemporary Bolognese morocco binding

Dante Alighieri. Le terze rime di Dante. (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, August 1502)

The first Aldine edition of Dante's Divina commedia; second issue, after the addition of the Aldine device to the verso of the final leaf. A second copy, printed on paper, and, like the preceding copy printed on vellum, retaining the misspelling of the author's surname in the sub-title printed on a1 verso, this copy finely illuminated for a member of the Turchi family of Bologna and bound in contemporary blind-tooled regional morocco. An identical centerpiece accompanied by the arabesque border stamp can be seen on a couple of bindings by the Second Binder of San Salvatore, active ca. 1525-1535 (illustrated in A. Hobson and L. Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del rinascimento, plates 31 and 35).

"Although Aldus focused his publication program on ancient literature, he admired later writers whose style reflected the elegance of the classical era" (Grolier/Aldus 34). "[T]he renown of Dante and Petrarch was firmly rooted in their superior art of verse-making. This state of affairs was confirmed at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Aldo Manuzio selectively included Le cose volgari di Messer Francesco Petrarca (1501) and Le terze rime di Dante (1502) in his famous octavo series of pocket classics printed in italic—where the order of publication also implied priority of status. Singled out as the only vernacular classics which could hold their own in the company of the ancient Latin and Greek authors, Petrarch’s Canzoniere and Trionfi and Dante’s Commedia were edited with stringent philological accuracy by Manuzio’s associate, Pietro Bembo. His unprecedented method generated a few perplexities at first …, but the long-lasting authority Petrarch's and Dante's texts enjoyed on account of this operation automatically placed both authors in a special category" (Caruso, "Editing Vernacular Classics in the Early Sixteenth Century: Ancient Models and Modern Solutions," in Building the Canon through the Classics. Imitation and Variation in Renaissance Italy (1350-1580), ed. Morra [Brill, 2019], p. 127).

8vo (160 x 100 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-z⁸ A-G⁸ H⁴: 244 leaves (l2 blank). Three-line initial spaces with guide letters at the beginning of each cantica, woodcut Aldine device on H4v. First opening illuminated, on a1v a scene of a unicorn dipping his horn in order to purify the water in a pink fountain with four birds in the surrounding trees and a lake behind, a2r with a gilt and colored frame around the text, the Turchi family armorial within a wreath at the foot with the initials NT illuminated on a blue ground and a small roundel portrait of Dante in the right hand frame, with a similar frame used for the first page of both Purgatorio (l3) and Paradiso (x4). (Leaves of first quire and several leaves of quire m extended or otherwise repaired at inner margin, lower fore-edge corners of s1 and A1 restored, illuminated borders just shaved, occasional light soiling or dampstaining, chiefly marginal, small pink stain at foot of k3-m6, probably from an earlier red silk ribbon page-marker.)

binding: Contemporary northern Italian (likely Bolognese) black goatskin (167 x 110 mm), tooled in blind, frame comprising two rows of arabesques at head and tail and one row at sides, with a large acorn stamp in corners and a large arabesque stamp in center, stubs from four pairs of ties, plain endpapers and edges, "Dante" ink-lettered on top edge. (Spine restored with loss, extremities worn, recased and resewn.) Half red morocco slipcase, chemise.

provenance: Arms of the Turchi family of Bologna on a2r with the initials N T, perhaps Niccolò Turchi (ca. 1455-1524) — unidentified eighteenth-century notes on rear endpapers — armorial bookplate of a member of the Le Sage d'Hauteroche d'Hulst family, with motto Nihil eis nocebit — "Des livres de Jean Gigli de Fano 1813," inscription on verso of front free endpaper — Paul Schäfer, of Warburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, bookseller's ticket on front pastedown. acquisition: Purchased from Guido Bortolani, Modena, 2022. references: UCLA 59.5; Adams D83; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 63; Edit16 1144; Renouard 34/5; USTC 808768