Descrizione

LIMITED EDITION, SIGNED by the designer and printer, Hans Mardersteig, number 4 of 1500 copies only. Handsomely printed by Mardersteig himself on fine rag mould-made Italian paper. Folio, bound at the Officina Bodoni in finely decorated brocade cloth woven at the Mario Fortuny mills in Venice in an all-over Renaissance floral pattern of rose and buff, with a red label decorated and lettered in gilt on the spine, with the scarce original plain paper dustwrapper lettered on the spine in black and in the original paper-covered slipcase lettered in black. xxi, 492, colophon, autograph. A pristine and perfect copy of this book, the cloth is in 'as mint' condition and with the gilt lettering on the spine label bright and perfect, internally spotless and without flaw, with many pages still unopened. The typically discarded paper dustjacket with some minor mellowing to the spine panel, light and trivial rubbing along the edges, the slipcase handsome and solid with just a little wear or marking to the paper.

Edizione: this impressive folio edition of dante’s great masterpiece was prepared by hans mardersteig and printed by him at his officina bodoni in verona, italy for the limited editions club. it is one of the most stately and tastefully elegant of the club's early endeavors. the book was hand-pressed at the officina bodoni, known for printing books of the very highest quality and the finest craftsmanship. the translation into english is by melville b. anderson, one of the world’s best known dante scholars. <br> “we call it the ‘divine comedy’. dante called it simply the ‘comedy’, because, as he says in one of his letters (if it be his), it proceeds from hell toward heaven, from the worse toward the better-a very medieval conception of comedy. the epithet ‘divine’ was added at a later date. boccaccio began by calling dante a divine poet. others burned incense to him as the author of divine works. finally, in the year 1555, the tolomei edition was entitled, flatly: ‘la divina commedia’. most fortunate of publishers’ blurbs!”-livingston from the introduction.