[SOLD] Dante Alighieri – La Divina Commedia – 1768

A very well-preserved 1768 set of Dante’s 14th-century poem, in the original Italian, published in two volumes.

Widely viewed as one of the most important pieces of Western literature, the poem is divided into three parts – Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso – providing an imagined view of the Christian afterlife.

The work also helped to establish the Tuscan language as the definitive Italian language, and uses a structure of canto verses.

This set was published in Paris in 1768 by Appresso Marcello Prault. Bound in full calf leather, with gilt line-panelled boards, decorative spines with red and black compartments numbered and lettered in gilt. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

With an introduction to the life of Dante, and an engraved frontispiece portrait by Littret (1767) in the first volume. The second has a fold-out engraved plate showing a map of Hell after a model of Antonio Manetti.

In very good condition, with only minor wear commensurate with age. Some handling marks and rubbing externally, with a few small chips to extremities of spines. Previous owner’s bookplate to front endpapers.

All pages inside clean and bright with no writing or markings. Two volumes, 212 pages and 432 pages. 14.5 x 8.5 cm.