[DANTE ALIGHIERI]. Dante col sito, et forma dell' inferno. Toscolano: Paganino and Alessandro Paganini, [c.1527-1533].
Hardcover. Full vellum. Small octavo (155 x 90mm), [247] leaves: woodcut illustration, map. Signatures: a-z⁸ A-H⁸ (L2 blank). Title on title page verso: Lo'nferno e'l purgatorio e'l paradiso di Dante Alaghieri. Italian text in italic type. Near contemporary vellum, smooth spine, brown calf lettering-piece, gilt titles. First 111 pages numbered by hand in upper margin, 3-line initial spaces with guide-letters, with blank L2, double-page woodcut illustration showing Jerusalem and the descent through purgatory and hell on H4-H5, and 1 full-page diagram of hell and purgatory verso of H5, Paganini's colophon on final leaf, Registro on H4.
Condition: Binding tight and secure, the covers somewhat grubby. This copy lacking leaf H6, which bears the final two woodcut schemas (copies of which are supplied in photocopy). Some browning and a few folded page corners, otherwise a generally good copy.
Note: A very scarce edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. An imitation by Paganini of the Aldus edition of 1515. cf. Renaissance Dante in Print, 1472-1629, according to Renouard, the type size is bigger than the italic type used by Aldus. Printers identified as Paganino Paganini and son Alexander Paganino from colophon, which reads: "P[aganinus] [&] Alex. Pag. Benacenses f[ecerunt] Bena[cus] v[ivat] v[ivat]." See F.J. Norton, Italian printers 1501-1520, p. 116, citing Luigi Lechi, Della tipografia brescianna nel secolo decimoquinto (Brescia 1854), p. 97. [Adams D-91; Brunet II 502; Sander 2318].
