[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 & Company, Limited, 1892.
Hardcover. Popular Edition. Full leather. Octavo (235 x 160mm), pp. [xxxii], 333. English text. Verse and biography in single column, commentary and footnotes in double columns. Exquisite contemporary full morocco, unsigned but clearly produced by a premiere bindery, with intricate gilt ruled and tooled covers, edges and inner dentelles. Beveled boards. All page edges gilt. Rich marbled pastedowns and endpapers. Portrait frontispiece with tissue-guard. Title-page printed in red and black. Contents: Preface; Life of Dante; The Vision of Hell, Canto I - XXXIV. Illustrated with seventy-five designs by the renowned Gustave Dore. Provenance: M. A. Foster's bookplate to front pastedown and endpaper.
Condition: an immaculate copy presented in the most exquisite binding.
Notes: 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.
