[Dante Divine Comedy] 1578 Venice Edition

[Dante Divine Comedy, 1578 Venice Second Edition] Full Title: Dante con l'Espositioni di Christoforo Landino et d'Alessandro Vellutello sopra la sua Comedia dell'Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso. Con Tavole, Argomenti, & Allegorie. Ridotto alla sua vera Lettura da Francesco Sansovino Fiorentino.

Publication: 1578 Venice: Appresso Gioambattista, Marchio Sessa & Fratelli. 

Second Sessa edition,  with commentary by Landino and Vellutello, edited by Francesco Sansovino. 

A landmark Renaissance edition of Dante's Divine Comedy, printed in Venice in 1578 by the Sessa family.

Folio. Second Sessa edition of one of the most important sixteenth-century illustrated editions of Dante's Divine Comedy, containing the celebrated commentaries of Cristoforo Landino and Alessandro Vellutello. Title-page with large woodcut printer's device, text printed in double columns throughout, accompanied by numerous woodcut illustrations and diagrams integrated into the text. With 16 leaves supplied in impressive manuscript; including the title page and woodcut device of the printer. Six missing folio leaves between  369 and 376. 

This copy corresponds to the variant described in Giuliano Mambelli's Annali delle Edizioni Dantesche, supplied with the portrait title of Dante and the cat device of Marchio Sessa. A substantial folio printing that played a significant role in the transmission and interpretation of Dante during the Renaissance, incorporating the influential Vellutello commentary and Sansovino's editorial revisions.

Condition:

Majority of contents are in good, clean condition; faint water staining at points throughout;  two leaves (fo. 180-81) heavily browned; worm track mostly to lower margin, most heavily affecting leaves from approximately. fo 64-100, occasionally encroachingon letterpress. In early 18th century vellum. more photos upon request