[ALIGHIERI, DANTE]. The Vision of Hell. Translated by the Rev. Henry Francis Cary and Illustrated with the [Seventy-Five] Designs by Gustave Dore. With Critical and Explanatory Notes, Life of Dante, and Chronology. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1868.
Hardcover. New Edition. Full leather. Folio (380 x 290 mm.), pp. [xxiv], 183 + illustrated plates outside the pagination. English text. Exquisite contemporary full leather, unsigned but clearly produced by a premiere bindery, with intricate gilt ruled and tooled spine and turn-ins, the beveled boards beautifully decorated in blind. All page edges gilt. Marbled pastedowns and endpapers. Portrait frontispiece with tissue-guard. Title-page printed in red and black. Illustrated with seventy-five designs by the renowned Gustave Dore, each plate with a captioned tissue-guard. Extensive footnotes. Contents: Preface; Life of Dante; The Vision of Hell, Canto I - XXXIV. Condition: NEAR FINE. Binding tight and secure with the hinges perfectly intact. Sight rubbing to spine ends and points. The contents remarkably well reserved. Without previous ownership markings. A most exquisite large format example.
Note: Dore's spectacular illustrations bring Dante's visions to life in a style and manner to satisfy artistic appetites both subtle and grotesque. An excellent example of the nineteenth century art of printing and decoration. Dr. Cary's was the first and most important translation into English. Cary's famous translation has long been considered the first modern rendering of Dante's timeless epic into English. While previous English translations prior to Cary's had been accomplished in the 18th century, none were able to transfer into the English language, the beauty and richness of language for which Dante has forever been revered.
