Object details

Object number

2.c.1.8

Creator(s)

• Dante Alighieri (Florence, 1265 - 1321, Ravenna) - author
• Cristoforo Landino (Florence, 1425 - 1498, Borgo alla Collina) - author
• Nicolaus Lorenz Of Breslau (active Florence, 1477 - 1486) - printer
• Francis Bedford (Paddington, 1799 - 1883, London) - binder
• Baccio Baldini (about 1436 - 1487, Florence) - engraver
• Sandro Botticelli (Florence, 1444 or 1445 - 1510, Florence) - illustrator

Title

Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia]

Date

1481

Medium

Printed ink on paper

Case

Dante Case

Language

Latin

Publication Place

Florence

Binding Description

Full brown crushed levant morocco; gold fillets on sides; fillets with central ornament on back; fillets inside; gilt edges

Description

1 Vol. (358 leaves, 744 pages) : ill. ; 43 cm. (folio)

Provenance

Collection of the British prime minister Augustus Henry FitzRoy, third Duke of Grafton (1735–1811), by 1781.

By descent to George Henry Fitzroy, fourth Duke of Grafton (1760–1844), probably 1811.

Probably purchased by the booksellers and publishers Dulau & Co., London from the FitzRoy sale at R. H. Evans, London for £5 on 6-11 June 1815, lot 612.

Collection of the English judge and politician Lord Justice Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce (1791-1866).

Purchased by the bookseller and publisher Bernard Quaritch (1819-1899), London from the collection of Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce on 23 August 1867.

Purchased by Alexander William Crawford, Twenty-fifth Earl of Crawford (1812-1880) from Bernard Quaritch in September 1867.

By descent to the astronomer James Ludovic Lindsay, Twenty-sixth Earl of Crawford (1847–1913), probably 1880.

Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Crawford library sale at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge through Bernard Quaritch, London and the scholar and critic Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908) for £420 on 22 June 1887, lot 768.

Signatures, inscriptions, and markings

Stamped: Francis Bedford [English bookbinder, 1799–1883]
Affixed (front cover): bookplate of Isabella Stewart Gardner
Inscribed in ink (first page of Proemio and Commentary): "D. of Grafton / 1781" [third duke of Grafton and British Prime Minister Augustus Henry FitzRoy (1735–1811)]
Inscribed in pencil and erased: indecipherable [English (?)]
Inscribed (Inferno and Purgatorio): annotations in Italian/Latin [written in a late fifteenth-century Humanistic hand, probably by the book's first owner]
Enclosed: typed bibliographic description
Enclosed: photocopy of typed bilbiographic description
Enclosed: photocopy of a typed list of 19 engravings titled "Titles of Engravings for 1481 Dante"
Enclosed: note, inscribed: "1481 , 2.C.1.8"

Dimensions

43 x 31 cm (16 15/16 x 12 3/16 in.)

Commentary

This book is Botticelli's first attempt to illustrate the Divine Comedy.  It was an experiment in using engravings which, unlike woodcuts, required an additional run through the printing press.  The process must have proved too difficult, because the project was abandoned and many copies were produced without the illustrations.  The Gardner copy is a rare complete example containing all nineteen engravings.  





Isabella purchased this volume from the Earl of Crawford's sale in London, to the delight of her fellow members of the Dante Society who had been encouraging American collectors to purchase fine copies of the Divine Comedy so that they would be available to students in their own country.

Gallery

Long Gallery

Bibliography

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