[DANTE ALIGHIERI]. Opere del divino poeta danthe con suoi comenti: recorrecti et con ogne diligentia novamente in littera cvrsiva impresse. Impressa in Venetia [Venice]: Per Miser Bernardino Stagnino da Trino de Monferra, del. M.CCCCC.XX [1520] A. di. XXVIII. Marzo.
Hardcover. Second Stagnino Edition. Vellum-bound. Thick quarto (205 x 150 mm), ff. [12], 441 [i.e. 440] (numbered leaves). Signatures: 2A¹² a-z⁸ [et]⁸ 2a-2z⁸ 2[et]⁸ 2[con]⁸ 2[rum]⁸ A-E⁸. Imprint from colophon on leaf 438: "Comento di Christoforo Landino Fiore[n]tino sopra la comedia di Danthe ... reuista [et] emendata ... per ... Pietro da Figino". Register at end. Italian text in italic type with some roman, in 51 lines of commentary partially surrounding text. Near contemporary full vellum binding with titles hand written to spine in black ink. Speckled page edges. Title-page printed in red and black, with ornamental woodcut border (repeated recto a²) incorporating winged angels playing instruments and other classical motifs, plus two woodcut vignettes depicting St. Bernardine of Siena holding the sacred monogram of Jesus on a board, and God confronting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (repeated recto a²). One full-page woodcut depicting Virgil and three images of Dante (verso a¹). 98 xylographic illustrations in the text throughout, loosely based on those in the 1491 edition of Dante's works. Floriated initials. Spaces for capitals with guide letters. Shoulder notes. Later initial and terminal blanks. Comprises the Divina commedia, edited by Pietro da Figino, the commentary and life of Dante by Cristoforo Landino, and Dante's Credo, Pater Nostro and Ave Maria (l. 440-441 [i.e. 439-440]). Condition: GOOD to VERY GOOD. Collated complete. Binding secure. Slight marking and wear to covers. Textblock slightly cropped with occasional light foxing and browning. Old marginalia on leaf 197. Scarce.
Note: Rare second Stagnino-edition with text edited by Pietro Bembo, profusely illustrated with woodcut illustrations throughout the text, of Dante's Comedy including the 15th century Cristoforo Landino commentaries, arguably still the most important and influential comments on Dante's seminal work. While the Aldine-style Dante-editions had flooded the literary market, the more austere and demanding academic circles still required their Dante with commentary. Bernardino Stagnino sought to satisfy this group of the reading public with three editions of the poem (1512, 1520 and 1536) incorporating Landino's commentary in all of them."Stagnino's one significant innovation was to print the "modern" Aldine text edited by Pietro Bembo together with the 15th-century Landino commentary. Inevitably, discrepancies between text and commentary became even more numerous than they had been in the earlier editions. Yet, the 15th-century vulgate of Dante's text clearly had been superseded by Aldus' edition of 1502. Beyond this innovation, Stagnino rested content to resurrect in 1512 the Landino text as corrected by Pietro da Figino during the 1490s (printed now for the sixth time since 1491). "(University of Notre Dame)" Stagnino belonged to the distinguished Giolito de' Ferrari da Trino (Piedmont) family of printers, a family worthy of being considered alongside the Manutius family, if not for the correctness of their texts, then certainly for their long history in Renaissance publishing and printing. Around 1483 he moved from Trino to Venice and established a press under the sign of San Bernardino, and remained active there until his death in 1538. Landino, tutor of Lorenzo de' Medici and a member of the Platonic Academy founded by Marsilio Ficino in Florence, still ranks among the most important Dante-commentators: "The significance of this prestigious commentary can hardly be overstated, both at the time of its first printing (1482) and through the fifteen subsequent reprints that were made before the end of the sixteenth century. It is without doubt the most celebrated and widely influential commentary on the Comedy to be printed in Renaissance Italy. It marks a pivotal moment in the Florentine cult of Dante [...]" (Gilson, Dante and Renaissance Florence). [USTC: 808773; Adams D-87; Essling 536, 539; Haym 185; Kristeller 309, 312; Mambelli 27; Mortimer 144; Proctor 12359; Sander 2320, 2325].
