[DANTE (Alighieri)]. Dante con l'Espositioni di Christoforo Landino, et d' Alessandro Vellvtello. Sopra la sua Comedia dell' Inferno, del Purgatorio, & del Paradiso. Con Tavole, Argomenti, & Allegorie, & riformato, riueduto, & ridotto alla sua vera Lettura, per Francesco Sansovino Fiorentino. Venice: Appresso Giouambattista, Marchio Sessa, & Fratelli, 1578.
SECOND EDITION. Leather-bound; hardcover; folio (330 x 220 x 50 mm); ff. [28], 163, [4], 164-392. Leaves numbered to rectos with errors in foliation: 107, 288 numbered 103, 286 respectively. Signatures: a8, b6, c4, d10, A-V8, X12, Y-Z8, 2A-2Z8, 3A-3C8. Initial and terminal blanks present. Italian text framed by commentaries printed in double column. Handsomely bound in contemporary brown full calf; spine gilt-decorated; red speckled page edges; title with large woodcut portrait of Dante in profile within a rich medallion with cherubs and garlands; 97 woodcut illustrations to text (three of which are full-page); woodcut initials and ornaments; woodcut device of the printer Marchio Sessa depicting a cat (Zappella, 588) to verso of final leaf. Condition: VERY GOOD. Collated complete. Binding secure with some marks and discreet restoration to joints at head and foot of spine. Contents generally in clean condition with wide margins, minor fraying to outer edges of endpapers. Early 20th century bookplate of André Corbeau to front free endpaper. A most attractive copy.
Notes: The second of three editions of Dante's Commedia printed by Marchio Sessa (also known as the 'Gran Naso' editions due to the prominent profile portrait of the author on the title-page), with the commentary by Alessandro Vellutello together with that by Cristoforo Landino. One of the earliest scholarly editions of Dante's Divina Commedia, with the dedication by Giovanni Antonio Rampazetto to Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. The editions of the Commedia by Marchio Sessa, printed respectively in 1564, 1578 and 1596, are enhanced by the many woodcut illustrations traditionally ascribed to the engraver Francesco Marcolini. BMSTC 210; Adams D 108; Brunet II 504; Mambelli, Annali delle Edizioni Dantesche, 49.
