[ALIGHIERI, DANTE]. The Vision of Hell. Translated by the Rev. Henry Francis Cary, M.A., and Illustrated with the [Seventy-Five] Designs of M. Gustave Doré. With Critical and Explanatory Notes, Life of Dante, and Chronology. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, MDCCCLXVI. [1866].
NEW EDITION; leather bound, hardcover, folio (39 x 29 x 5 cm), pp. [xxiv], 183, [6] advertisements + illustrated plates outside the pagination. English text. Exquisitely bound in contemporary full morocco gilt by Alfred Smith & Co., all page edges gilt, moiré silk endpapers, portrait frontispiece with tissue-guard, title-page printed in red and black, illustrated with seventy-five designs by the renowned Gustave Doré, each plate with a captioned tissue-guard, extensive footnotes throughout. Contents: Life of Dante; Chronological view of the Age of Dante; The Vision of Hell, Canto I - XXXIV. Condition: VERY GOOD. Binding tight and secure with the hinges and joints perfectly intact. Covers very well-preserved with sight rubbing to points. The contents largely fresh and clean, a few leaves with small marginal stains. Previous ownership inscription in pencil to front endpaper. A most exquisite large format example in a stunning signed binding.
Note: Doré'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.
