Details
[VERNON, George John Warren (1803-1866), Fifth Baron]. Serie cronologica delle edizioni dell'intero testo e delle parti separate della Divina Commedia di Dante Allighieri; delle sue traduzioni, de'suoi comenti, e delle principali opere che servano ad illustrarla. N.p., n.d. [Florence?: Privately Printed, ca 1850].
Large 4o (358 x 248 mm). Interleaved. (Title a bit spotted.) Contemporary red cloth (spine and edges somewhat darkened). Provenance: Gustavo Camillo Galletti (1805-1868), Florence (inkstamp on title); Baron Horace de Landau (1803-1866, bookplate).
Lord Vernon's chronological list of the editions of the Divine Comedy also serves as a list of his celebrated Dante Collection, of which he had privately printed an octavo catalogue in 1850; so few copies were produced that there are none in the British Library nor in the Fiske Dante Collection, Cornell University Library. Ottino & Fumagalli (no. 852) had obviously not seen a copy. Of the 388 editions here listed no fewer than 249, indicated by an asterisk, were in Vernon's collection. The list is divided into seven columns, containing the consecutive number of the editions and marked by an asterisk where applicable, the date, place, printer, size and commentator of the editions, and often very extensive commentaries concerning them. This is followed by supplements, and indices of printing places, printers, editors and translators. There may have been two issues, one, listed in British Library General Catalogue (under Warren), dated 1850 ("proof sheets in 8vo"), and the above quarto on large paper, which has remained unknown to all bibliographers. Its contents were taken over in Vol. I of Vernon's edition of the Inferno (1858-1865), also printed in so limited an edition that forty years later DNB stated that only a few had appeared in the market. The fifth Baron Vernon spent the latter part of his life in Florence.
Large 4
Lord Vernon's chronological list of the editions of the Divine Comedy also serves as a list of his celebrated Dante Collection, of which he had privately printed an octavo catalogue in 1850; so few copies were produced that there are none in the British Library nor in the Fiske Dante Collection, Cornell University Library. Ottino & Fumagalli (no. 852) had obviously not seen a copy. Of the 388 editions here listed no fewer than 249, indicated by an asterisk, were in Vernon's collection. The list is divided into seven columns, containing the consecutive number of the editions and marked by an asterisk where applicable, the date, place, printer, size and commentator of the editions, and often very extensive commentaries concerning them. This is followed by supplements, and indices of printing places, printers, editors and translators. There may have been two issues, one, listed in British Library General Catalogue (under Warren), dated 1850 ("proof sheets in 8vo"), and the above quarto on large paper, which has remained unknown to all bibliographers. Its contents were taken over in Vol. I of Vernon's edition of the Inferno (1858-1865), also printed in so limited an edition that forty years later DNB stated that only a few had appeared in the market. The fifth Baron Vernon spent the latter part of his life in Florence.