Beschreibung:

Dante Alighieri. Qui comincia la vita e costumi dello excellente Poeta vulgari Dante alighieri di Firenze honore e gloria delidioma Fiorentino..., fragment only, containing: the first four quires of Inferno, with the text of Cantos I-XII (fols. a-d10, fols. a1, d7-d10 lacking), plus fols. a5, a6, e1 and e4 from the Vita di Dante by Giovanni Boccaccio and fols. PP9 and PP10 from the last quire of the edition, containing the text of the well-known Capitolo 'O voi che siete dal verace lume' by Jacopo Alighieri, and a substantial fragment of the spurious 'Credo di Dante', text in two columns, 46-49 lines, type: 5:89G., painted eight-line initials including two putti on fol. a3r at the opening of Canto I, painted initial in floral pattern on fol. a3v at the beginning of the related commentary, in lower margin two putti holding a painted coat of arms, possibly referring to the Italian families Cadolini or Cabassi, both originating from the Emilia region, initials painted alternately in red and blue, capitals touched with red, outer margin of fol. a3r contemporary ink drawings (see note below), contemporary maniculae and marginalia, note in margin of fol. b9v in a later hand, manuscript title-page written in black and red ink by an English late 19th-century hand ('La Commedia di Dante Allighieri Printed at Venice by Vindelin de Spira 1477'), followed by an extensive bibliographical note in the same hand about the edition, its presence in the major private collections of the 18th and 19th century, and its incompleteness: 'This edition of Dante, were it perfect, without doubt be valuable', some foxing, finger-marks and early ink stains, coloured surface of a few initials faded, leaves from the preliminary Vita di Dante and last quire rather spotted, soiled, and water-stained, with old repairs to blank margins of fol. a1, and PP9, large portion of fol. PP10 lacking and restored, disbound, folio (327 x 217mm.), [Venice], [Vindelinus de Spira], 1477. ⁂ A large fragment of the Inferno, with additional leaves from the preliminary Vita di Dante by Giovanni Boccaccio and from the last quire of the famous Commedia printed in Venice in 1477 by Vindelinus de Spira. This is first edition of Dante's poem to contain a commentary and other earlier encomiastic and exegetical texts. The so called Vindeliniana was prepared by the humanist Cristoforo Berardi from Pesaro, and it is one of the few books produced by the second Venetian press established by Vindelinus in 1476. The great interest of this fragment lies in the presence of two contemporary ink drawings in the margin of fol. a1r. The drawings depict two scenes relating to the canto itself, the first one showing Dante confronting the three wild beasts on the rocky mountain; the second one Virgil, Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory, appearing to him on the mountain, confirmed by the marginal note , 'Virgilius Maro Poeta Mantuanus' written in the same hand as the artist. The iconography is, as follows: the three beasts are placed one above the other, and this serial narrative includes three different representations of the Italian poet: Dante confronts a speckle-coated leopard; Dante confronts a lion (here rather faded); and Dante confronts a wolf. In the tradition of the illuminated manuscripts of the Commedia, multiple representations of Dante are quite scarce, and a similar iconography is to be found in Venetian manuscripts particularly, such as that preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, Ms.it. 78 (see P. Brieger-M. Meiss-C.H. Singleton, Illuminated Manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, Princeton 1969, II, p. 45, pl. a). The particular structure of the rocky mountain can also be traced in illuminated manuscripts of the Commedia produced in the Venetian or Veronese areas (see for example Holkham Hall 514). The sun shining on its summit is represented as a female figure, anticipating the appearance in Canto II of the beloved Beatrice, who in iconographic tradition is often represen