Easton Press: The Divine Comedy: Dante Alighieri: WILLIAM BLAKE Illustrator
Item History & Price
Easton Press leather edition of "The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, " Translated into English by Melville, Introduced by Arthur Livingston, Illustrated With 22 Drawings by WILLIAM BLAKE, a COLLECTOR'S edition, one of the 100 GREATEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN series, published in 1978. Bound in burgundy leather, the book has pale yellow French moire silk end leaves, hubbed spine, satin book marker, gold gilding on all three edge---in FINE condition. Durante degl...i Alighieri, called Dante, who lived from 1265 – 1321, was a major Italian poet of the late Middle Ages. His "Divine Comedy" is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of World Literature. Dante's significance also extends past his home country; his depictions of HELL, PURGATORY, and HEAVEN have provided inspiration for a large body of Western art. The Divine Comedy has 100 cantos. The number "three" is prominent in the work, which was written using the terza rima verse scheme. Written in the first person, the poem tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night before GOOD FRIDAY to the Wednesday after EASTER in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet VIRGIL guides him through Hell and Purgatory; BEATRICE, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine woman whom he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition. The structure of the three realms follows a common numerical pattern of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10: 9 circles of the Inferno, followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; 9 rings of Mount Purgatory, followed by the GARDEN OF EDEN crowning its summit; and the 9 celestial bodies of Paradiso, followed by the EMPYREAN containing the very essence of God. Within each group of 9, 7 elements correspond to a specific moral scheme, subdivided into three subcategories, while 2 others of greater particularity are added to total nine. For example, the seven deadly sins of the Catholic Church that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the Late repentant and the excommunicated by the church. The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love (Lust, Gluttony, Greed), deficient love (Sloth), and malicious love (Wrath, Envy, Pride.) Dante was exiled in 1302 at the request of POPE BONIFACE VIII. 492 pages. I offer COMBINED shipping.
