Heading: (Divine Comedy)
Author: Dante Alighieri
Title: Dante con l’Espositioni di Christoforo Landino, et d’Alessandro Vellutello
Place Published: Venice
Publisher:Appresso Giouambattista, Marchio? Sessa, & Fratelli
Date Published: 1578
Description:

[28], 163, [4], 164-392 leaves. Edited by Francesco Sansovino. Title page illustrated with a portrait of Dante, with 96 additional woodcuts. Woodcut head- and tail-pieces, floriated initials, printer's device on final leaf. (Folio) full calf tooled and lettered on spine in gilt.

Includes the notable commentaries of Christoforo Landino and Alessandro Velutello. The woodcuts are taken from Velutello's 1544 edition. A beautifully designed book with lovely typography and woodcuts. Armorial bookplate of The Right Hon. Charles Viscount Bruce of Ampthill on verso of title page.

Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury) and 4th Earl of Elgin (1682-1747), of Ampthill, Bedfordshire and Savernake Park, Wiltshire, styled Viscount Bruce of Ampthill from 1685 to 1741, was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1705 until 1711 when he was raised to the peerage as one of Harley's Dozen and sat in the House of Lords.

Calf rubbed with scratches and wear, gilding fading on spine; front hinge cracked but thongs holding, preliminary blank detached and laid in, fading to select woodcuts, some hints of offsetting; very good overall.