La Divina Commedia. [The Divine Comedy].

ALIGHIERI, Dante. Introduction by Raffaello Fornaciari.

Item Number: 130322

Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, [1911].

Finley bound Italian printing of Dante’s masterpiece. 14mo, bound in full gilt-decorated vellum with titles to the spine and front panel in black and red. In very good condition. Ownership inscription.

Widely considered the most important work of Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature, Dante's Divine Comedy takes as its literal subject the state of the soul after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward. The work was originally simply titled Comedìa (so also in the first printed edition, published in 1472), Tuscan for "Comedy", and was later adjusted to the modern Italian Commedia. The adjective Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio, in reference to the work's subject matter and lofty style, and the first edition to name the poem Divina Comedia was that of Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce, published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.