Dante Alighieri. [Le terze rime di Dante]. (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, August 1502)

First Aldine edition of Dante's Divina commedia; first issue, before the addition of the Aldine device to the verso of the final leaf. A༒ second copy.

"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, Reading Dante in Renaissance Italy [Cambridge University Press, 2018], p. 33).

(Another volume from the library of the 𒉰unidentified original owner—“Io. Ma. Ro.”— covering the 1513 Aldine Pontaꦍno, formerly in the Arthur E. Neergaard collection of Aldines, is now a part of Yale University's Beinecke Library [BEIN Gr12 P776 A1].)

8vo (163 x 100 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-z⁸ (-a1, l2) A-G⁸ H⁴: 242 (of 244) leaves (lacking title-page and l2 blank). Three-line initial spaces with guide letters at the beginning of each cantica. (a8, conjugate to missing title-page, loose, d2 witꦐh tear at top margin extending into the first sixteen lines of text, D5 with paper flaw or gouge costing about a dozen letters, marginal wormholes to first and last few leaves, scattered soiling and staining, some dampstaining at lower margin and, tow💧ards end, at fore-edge margin as well.)

binding: Venetian brown goatskin (170 x 106 mm), probably by Mendoza Binder, 1530s, covers paneled with frame of two gilt and multiple blind fillets, small gilt fleuron at outer corners of central frame, more elaborate cornerpieces at in𝓡ner corners of frame, central arabesque cross composed of four impressions of a gilt stirrup, the lower cover gilt-lettered at top and bottom between the gilt fillets DANTE and IO [fleuron] MA [fleuron] RO, traces of four pairs of ties, spine with three bands and fou☂r half bands, plain pastedowns (lacking free endpapers), edges gilt with simple gauffered border of dots, "Paradiso" ink-lettered on fore-edge. (Spine significantly restored with minor loss, some minor restoration to corners and extremities.)

provenance: Supralibros cypher "Io. Ma. Ro." on lower cover, perhaps to be interpreted as Io(an) Mar(ia) Ro(mano) [cf. Nagler, Monogrammisten, identifies a Io.Ma.Ro. as Giovanni Mauro Rovere (online)] — unidentified owner, possibly seventeenth-century, title label "Dante volg." designed to fold across upper edges — Sotheby's London, 14-15 April 1924, lot 282 ("Interesting books selected from an old country house library, the property of a Gentleman"); purchased by — Maggs Bros., London (£2 18s) — Christie's London, 6 June 2001, lot 5 (£7,050). acquisition: Purchased at the Christie's sale via Robin Halwas. references: UCLA 59; Adams D83; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 63; Edit16 1144; Renouard 34/5; USTC 808768