Dante's Inferno: New Edition

A RARE AND STUNNING 19TH CENTURY VICTORIAN ERA EDITION OF DANTE'S INFERNO
A GARGANTUAN EDITION WEIGHING 6LBS 3.5 OUNCES, "MUCH LARGER THAN IT APPEARS IN PHOTOS." 13-1/4" X 10-1/2"
THIS BOOK HAS THE FULL COLLECTION OF MASTER ARTIST GUSTAVE DORE'S ETCHINGS
IN VERY GOOD CONDITION AND INCLUDES 75 FULL-PAGE STEEL PLATE ARTWORKS, ALL VERY WELL PRESERVED
TRANSLATED DIRECTLY FROM THE 14TH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPTS
THE GOLD COVER ACCENTS ARE STILL SHINING AFTER A CENTURY, AND ALL THE GOLD END PAGES ARE VERY NICE

This is a scarce 19th-century edition of Dante's monumental work Inferno. This particular edition is a rarer find than most other Victorian editions for several reasons. This particular cover is one of the hardest to find, and it contains a marvelous collection of Gustave Dore's etchings, with over 70. "Most editions only have a few, and some have upwards of 60." The other rarity of this book would be the condition of the pages; they are very beautiful and some of the most well-kept I have seen for a 19th-century edition. Books of this stature and quality are no longer made. 99% of these large-sized editions I have found have issues with the pages pulling away from the spine because of the weight; luckily, this particular book is still exceptionally solid. Beginning in the early 1900s, some other editions were released of this book that were smaller in size and had fewer illustrations, and were printed in a somewhat poor quality. This is one of the most coveted cover illustrations released for any edition of Dante's Inferno. I would snag this one before it's gone.

Although this book lacks a print date "as all of these from this publisher did," Historical records show it was produced in 1885 by P.F. Collier "Peter Collier," "The publisher." The book "A critical companion to Dante." shows 1885. The University of Pennsylvania states 1885, as does Villanova University. You can see a record derived from Google Books in photo #9, as well as another record in photo #10 held on file with Worldcat in photo #10. It is also listed as 1885 in "The Unexpected Dante," which is a book written about Dante. I have owned dozens of Dante books, and this seems to be spot on; I also have owned a couple of others like this that were signed by previous owners around this date range. Also, the publisher changed their name in 1939. Crowell purchased Peter Collier & Son, and the firm was renamed Crowell-Collier Publishing Company in 1939.

The overall condition is very good for an 1800s edition. The covers have some normal age with rubbing, scratches, fading, etc. The spine has wear as well and some wrinkles in the fabric. The pages are naturally age toned and will contain the occasional age spot. The binding is exceptionally solid, and all the pages are holding very well. It is now well over 135 years old; thus, it is not perfect; however, it's one of the nicest I have ever owned.

The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia [diˈviːna komˈmɛːdja]) is a long Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

The narrative takes as its literal subject the state of souls after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward, and describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven, while allegorically the poem represents the soul's journey towards God, beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin (Inferno), followed by the penitent Christian life (Purgatorio), which is then followed by the soul's ascent to God (Paradiso). Dante draws on medieval Roman Catholic theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called "the Summa in verse". In Dante's work, the pilgrim Dante is accompanied by three guides: Virgil (who represents human reason), Beatrice (who represents divine revelation, theology, faith, and grace), and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (who represents contemplative mysticism and devotion to Mary). Erich Auerbach said Dante was the first writer to depict human beings as the products of a specific time, place, and circumstance as opposed to mythic archetypes or a collection of vices and virtues; this, along with the fully imagined world of "The Divine Comedy", different from our own but fully visualized, suggests that the Divine Comedy could be said to have inaugurated modern fiction[citation needed].

The work was originally simply titled Comedìa (pronounced [komeˈdiːa]; so also in the first printed edition, published in 1472), Tuscan for "Comedy", later adjusted to the modern Italian Commedia. The adjective Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio, and the first edition to name the poem Divina Comedia in the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce,[19] published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.