Beschreibung:

Dante Alighieri. Le terze rime di Dante. (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, August 1502) One of only eight recorded copies printed on vellum: the first Aldine edition of Dante's Divina commedia; second issue, after the addition of the celebrated anchor-and-dolphin device to the verso of the final leaf. "Aldus associated this device with the motto Festina lente (Hasten slowly). According to Erasmus (Adagia 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," the editor of thisvolume. Although Le terze rime is frequently described as the maiden use of the device, actually the "device had made its first appearance in the second volume in the series of the Poetae Christiani veteres, dated June 1502, surrounded by a rectangular frame. The version used in the second issue of the Dante, printed in August 1502 or shortly after, is a second state of this first version, with the border reduced to a series of dots" ("Aldus Manutius: A humanist printer for humanist readers," Cambridge University Library online exhibition; https://exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk/manutius/). Even after the addition of the device, corrections continued to be made during the press run. In the present copy, the author's surname remains misspelled in the sub-title printed on a1 verso: Lo'nferno e'l purgatorio e'l paradiso di Dante Alaghieri. Only one copy on vellum is cited by Rare Book Hub: the George John 2nd Earl Spencer–John Rylands Library copy—which lacked both the title-page and the blank leaf l2—sold by Sotheby's London, 14 April 1988, lot 24, for £55,000. Van Praet, Catalogue de livres imprimés sur vélin, qui se trouvent dans des bibliothèques tant publiques que particulières II:172, cites four other copies in addition to Lord Spencer's. Recorded copies printed on velum: (1)    London, British Library (C.4.d.4) (2)    London, British Library (G.10674) (3)    Milan, Archivio storico civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana (Rari Triv. Dante 86) (4)    Chicago, Newberry Library (Wing ZP 535.A354) (5)    Renouard’s copy, untraced, Christie's, A catalogue of the library of the late Right Rev. Samuel Butler  D.D. Bishop of Lichfield, London, 23-28 March 1840, lot 595 ("This was Renouard's copy, and when sold at his Sale, had the first six leaves in manuscript. They have since been copied in Fac-simile by Harris, and with such skill, that they are with difficulty detected… and therefore not noticed, when Mr Hanrott's Catalogue was made, at whose sale this was purchased.") (6)     Powis copy, untraced, “A Catalogue of books printed by Aldus Manutius and his successors 1495-1597 in the possession of Lord Viscount Clive London 1825” (London, British Library, Add Ms 54176, f.8 “[Le Terze Rime di Dante] aliud Exemplar. Vellum. Old R.M.”) — Sotheby's, Catalogue of a selected portion of the valuable library from Powis Castle, Welshpool, the property of the Right Hon. the Earl of Powis, London, 20-22 March 1923, lot 387 (lacks title, "its place taken by a very fine illuminated title, lettered in gold with a coat-of- arms below") (7)    Ryland’s copy, untraced, Sotheby's, Books from the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, London, 14 April 1988, lot 24 — Bernard Quaritch, London, purchased in previous sale (£55,000) And possibly: Renouard 1834 ("à Rome à la Sapienza") perhaps Rome, Biblioteca universitaria Alessandrina, Rari 146 (this information was drawn from a catalogue that does not indicate if the copy is on vellum; the only other copy in Rome, according to Edit16, is in Fondazione Besso, suggesting that perhaps the Sapienza copy was sold.) 8vo (159 x 97 mm), printed on vellum. Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-z8 A–G8 H4: 244 leaves (l2 blank). Title modestly rubricated, illuminated initials supplied over the guide letters at the beginning of each cantica in gold on green, maroon, and blue backgrounds, respectively, each with further foliate illumination, woodcut Aldine device on H4v. (First leaf soiled and with three tiny marginal holes, a2-7 with variously extensive restoration to lower fore-edge corners costing a couple of letters, some scattered staining and soiling, mostly confined to front and rear and including final leaf, though not encroaching on printer's device, label[?] removed from blank x3v, illuminations just shaved at top edge.) binding: Eighteenth-century Dutch(?) vellum (166 x 106 mm) over stiff pasteboards, overlapping fore-edges, red morocco spine label, plain endpapers, blue edges.
provenance: Sixteenth-century owner, illuminated initial at beginning of each cantica — Johan Bertus Wouter Polak (1928- 1992), sale of his library, J. L. Beijers, Utrecht, 11-13 May 1993, lot 131. acquisition: Purchased at Beijers via Marlborough Rare Books. references: UCLA 59.5; Adams D83; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 63; Edit16 1144; Grolier/Aldus 34 (this copy) Renouard 34/5; USTC 808768; cf. Van Praet II: 172