Dante's Inferno by Dante Alighieri - 1885

A STUNNING 19TH-CENTURY VICTORIAN-ERA EDITION THAT HAS BEEN VERY WELL PRESERVED
INCLUDING THE LARGE COLLECTION OF GUSTAVE DORE'S STEEL PLATE ENGRAVINGS, WITH 29 IN TOTAL
TRANSLATED DIRECTLY FROM THE 14TH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPTS
HANDS DOWN ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOKS EVER MADE
GENUINE VICTORIAN-ERA PRINTING WITH GOLD GILT COVER STILL GLISTENING AFTER 130+ YEARS OLD
JUST FOR AN AGE REFERENCE, THIS WAS PRINTED EVEN BEFORE THE FIRST WORLD WAR
A POWERFUL GLIMPSE INTO THE AFTERLIFE WITH ART BY GUSTAVE DORE
HAND-SIGNED BY A PREVIOUS OWNER IN 1890
PLEASE NOTE: 99% OF THESE LARGE-SIZED EDITIONS HAD LOOSE SPINES DUE TO THEIR WEIGHT; THIS EDITION IS TIGHT AND VERY SOLID, WITH ALL PAGES AND ART HOLDING PERFECTLY.

For anyone who loves the works of Dante Alighieri and the art of the master Gustave Dore, you will not find a more beautiful and incredible book. This is undoubtedly one of the most legendary and influential works of literature ever made. This showcase book will be displayed very handsomely in any collector's library. This book contains all 29 of Dore's masterful steel plate etchings. Interestingly enough, some of the gold text of this book looks to have been hand-painted; I have seen this before but only on a couple of others from this publisher. It still displays lovely details even after well over a century. The covers and spine have been exceptionally well-kept. They don't make them this good anymore and probably never will. I would snag this one before it's gone.

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 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. In addition, 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.

Although this book lacks a print date "as all of these from this publisher did," Historical records derived from the most credible literary sources show a circa 1885. The Booksellers Association has this dated 1885, while Villanova University says 1883, The Illuminating Dante site states 1885, and Wikipedia states 1885. In 1892 this publisher released another edition that had an alternate cover and was much smaller in size. I have included a document in the photos showing the print year of this gorgeous edition. It is also hand-signed and dated twice in 1890 by a previous owner.

The overall condition of this book is very good, considering it's well over a century in the making. It does have some normal aging and shelf wear. The interior pages are naturally age toned; there is a couple of owner inscriptions inside. It's an ancient book, so, it is not perfect; however, it's one of the nicest I have ever owned or seen.

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 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. The first edition to name the poem Divina Comedia in the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce, published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.