{"product_id":"le-terze-rime-i8kyrzth","title":"Le terze rime.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe first Aldine edition of Dante’s \u003cem\u003eDivine Comedy\u003c\/em\u003e and the first edition of Dante in a portable format; this is the second issue which has the Aldine anchor device at the end, it did not appear in the first.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Aldus’ edition is a landmark, given its sophisticated design, Bembo’s embrace of Trecento Tuscan forms (which he had studied closely), the philological work undertaken in presenting the text and the sense of value bestowed upon Dante by the fact that he is now presented in the octavo format that had previously been reserved only for Latin and Greek authors …” (Gilson, \u003cem\u003eReading Dante in Renaissance Italy\u003c\/em\u003e [Cambridge University Press, 2018], p. 33).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Dante’s text was edited by Pietro Bembo from an authoritative fourteenth-century manuscript in his father’s library (now Vatican Library, Vat. lat. 3199), identifiable with a codex sent by Giovanni Boccaccio as a gift to Francesco Petrarca in about 1351-53. Pietro’s autograph manuscript of the edited text, which he passed on to Aldus for printing, also survives (Vatican Library, Vat. lat. 3197). … It was the first edition of the poem after 1500 and its text was copied by the majority of subsequent sixteenth-century editors” (Cambridge University Library online exhibition: \u003ca rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk\/manutius\"\u003ehttps:\/\/exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk\/manutius\u003c\/a\u003e). It was Bembo who also supplied title, \u003cem\u003eLe terze rime\u003c\/em\u003e, which was not retained in subsequent editions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is one of the earliest Aldines to be printed entirely in italics, the first being the Petrarch which had appeared in July 1501 and which, like the Dante, was printed from a manuscript supplied by Pietro Bembo. Although the colophon for the Dante gives the date as August 1502, Aldus had written at the end of the Petrarch in his address to the reader that the Dante was soon to be ready, while Lorenzo de Pavia wrote in a letter dated 26 July 1501 that the Ovid was to begin printing by the end of September with the Dante to follow about 20 days later (see: H. G. Fletcher III, \u003cem\u003eNew Aldine Studies,\u003c\/em\u003e 1988, pp. 96-7).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is only the second use Aldus made of the famous printer’s device, an earlier version was used in the \u003cem\u003ePoetae Christiani Veteres\u003c\/em\u003e in January 1501 and showed the device enclosed within a double-line frame. In this second version, the double border has been cut away and replaced by a mixed pattern of dots. “Aldus associated this device with the motto \u003cem\u003eFestina lente\u003c\/em\u003e (Hasten slowly). According to Erasmus (\u003cem\u003eAdagia\u003c\/em\u003e II.1), he took inspiration for the device’s design from a Roman coin minted at the time of the Emperor Titus (r. 79-81 AD), given to him by Pietro Bembo” who was the editor of this volume, see: “Aldus Manutius: A humanist printer for humanist readers,” Cambridge University Library online exhibition).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis issue also has the misprint “Alaghieri” on the verso of the title-page and there is an inverted “V” in “Aedibus” in the colophon. Below the colophon is Aldus’ warning against counterfeit editions, “Cautum est ne quis hunc impune imprimat, uendat ue librum nobis inuitis” which went unheeded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProvenance: Inscribed on front fly-leaf “J.E.C.W. ad ludos proficiscenti d.d. amico amicus G.A.M. Christmas. 1898.”; probably James Edward Cowell Welldon (1854-1937) who was headmaster of Harrow until Christmas 1898 (Churchill was his pupil) when he left to take up the position of Bishop of Calcutta. “Welldon’s brilliant scholarship was exemplified in his translations of Aristotle—Politics (1883), Rhetoric (1886), and Ethics (1892). Aristotle coloured both his style and his manner of reasoning. He had a wide knowledge of English, French, German, and Italian literature” (see \u003cem\u003eODNB\u003c\/em\u003e for a full description of his career).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy appeared in Maggs’ catalogue 666 published in 1938, \u003cem\u003eA Classified Catalogue of Books in Foreign Languages of all the Periods,\u003c\/em\u003e no. 263a.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRenouard 34\/5. UCLA 59.5. Aldo Manuzio tipografo 63. Censimento Edit16 1144. Adams D83.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Maggs Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48394698522781,"sku":"262969","price":20000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0669\/0045\/9677\/files\/262969_03.jpg?v=1781088905","url":"https:\/\/store.maggs.com\/products\/le-terze-rime-i8kyrzth","provider":"Maggs Bros.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}