Details
DANTE Alighieri (1265-1321). Le terze rime. Venice: Aldus Manutius, August 1502.
Aldine 8° (148 x 93 mm). Collation: a-z8 A-G8 H4. 244 leaves, l2 blank. Italic type. Woodcut anchor device (no. 2) on verso of last leaf, initial spaces with guide letters. (Discreet paper repairs to title-leaf, lower margin of a2 restored touching text, marginal wormhole to last 100 leaves, last leaf soiled, some marginal soiling, occasional marginal foxing.) Late 18th-century French olive morocco, sides panelled in gilt, "Caissotil" gilt stamped in cursive script on upper cover, spine gilt, edges marbled and gilt (backstrip faded, slight wear to extremities).
Provenance: Caissotil, supralibros as above; a few early marginalia in quire l (washed); MS notation "RI + CI" on lower free endpaper.
FIRST ALDINE EDITION, first small-format edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. The Aldine anchor cut, the first use of the device, was added to the verso of the last leaf during the press-run; it is thus absent from some copies. Other small in-press corrections were made during the printing: for example, the misspellings in the sub-title on a1v are corrected in a few copies. Until recently few bibliographers had remarked that several quires were entirely reset in the course of printing (cf. a copy sold at Christie's London on 3 April 1996, lot 81, in which quires a-c were reset). The present copy has the sub-title in it first, uncorrected state, and quires a-c in the first setting, agreeing with the majority of copies.
Adams D-83; Brunet II, 500-1; Renouard Alde 34.5.
Aldine 8° (148 x 93 mm). Collation: a-z8 A-G8 H4. 244 leaves, l2 blank. Italic type. Woodcut anchor device (no. 2) on verso of last leaf, initial spaces with guide letters. (Discreet paper repairs to title-leaf, lower margin of a2 restored touching text, marginal wormhole to last 100 leaves, last leaf soiled, some marginal soiling, occasional marginal foxing.) Late 18th-century French olive morocco, sides panelled in gilt, "Caissotil" gilt stamped in cursive script on upper cover, spine gilt, edges marbled and gilt (backstrip faded, slight wear to extremities).
Provenance: Caissotil, supralibros as above; a few early marginalia in quire l (washed); MS notation "RI + CI" on lower free endpaper.
FIRST ALDINE EDITION, first small-format edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. The Aldine anchor cut, the first use of the device, was added to the verso of the last leaf during the press-run; it is thus absent from some copies. Other small in-press corrections were made during the printing: for example, the misspellings in the sub-title on a1v are corrected in a few copies. Until recently few bibliographers had remarked that several quires were entirely reset in the course of printing (cf. a copy sold at Christie's London on 3 April 1996, lot 81, in which quires a-c were reset). The present copy has the sub-title in it first, uncorrected state, and quires a-c in the first setting, agreeing with the majority of copies.
Adams D-83; Brunet II, 500-1; Renouard Alde 34.5.