Dante/Sofocle/M. Caetani - La Materia della Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri - Tragedie - 1872-1917

Lot of two reference works:

1 - The subject matter of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy declared in six plates by Michelangelo Caetani of Sermoneta. New edition edited by G. L. Passerini. Florence, G. C. Sansoni, / cover MCMXVII [1917].

Pocket format 113 × 73 mm.
Pp. XXI, (3), 20, (4) + 6 folded color plates out of text (Universal Figure of the Divine Comedy; Arrangement of Hell; Plan of Hell and Dante's itinerary; Inner view of Hell; Arrangement of Purgatory; Arrangement of Paradise).
Editorially illustrated soft cover in a neo-Gothic style with red and blue titles and vegetal borders; slight wear to paper and plate folds, overall good complete copy.

The work, conceived by Duke Michelangelo Caetani of Sermoneta (1804-1882), refined Dante scholar, politician and artist, constitutes one of the most important and influential tools for visualizing the cosmological and topographical structure of the Comedy.

The six plates, drawn by Caetani himself and first published in large format in Rome in 1855, offer a clear and didactic representation of the Dantean universe (heavens, Empyrean, Montaigne Purgatory, funnel-shaped Hell) and the Poet's itinerary, quickly becoming an essential reference for Dante studies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This “new edition” edited by Giuseppe Lando Passerini (1858-1932), one of the most active Dante promoters of the era, reprints in a reduced and portable format the explanatory text and the famous color plates, making them accessible to a wider public.

The Sansoni edition, elegant and typographically precise, is today sought after by collectors of Dante studies and literary cartography for the relative rarity in good complete condition of the six folded plates and for its historical-documentary value: Caetani's representations remain among the most successful and influential visualizations of Dantean beyond-the-world geography.

A notably valuable antiquarian and collectible specimen, ideal for Dante libraries and lovers of illustrated editions of the early twentieth century.

2 - Sophocles' Tragedies

translated by Felice Bellotti
Florence, G. Barbèra Editore, 1872.

Elegant nineteenth-century edition in pocket format (10.5 × 7 cm), pp. IX + 726.

Contains the seven complete tragedies of Sophocles (Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Ajax, The Trachiniae, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus) in the famous Italian translation by Felice Bellotti, accompanied by explanatory notes.

Original binding in beige card, a bit loose and with a vertical crease to the spine; interior generally fresh, with typical age-toned spots and light foxing.

This is one of the most appreciated nineteenth-century translations of Sophocles' tragedies, produced by Felice Bellotti (a prominent Tuscan poet and translator) and published by the prestigious Florentine publisher Barbèra.

The small-format edition, aimed at an educated but not necessarily specialist audience, is now rather rare on the market, especially complete and in good overall condition. It testifies to the Italian fortune of classical Greek drama in the nineteenth century and preserves undeniable antiquarian charm.

Excellent collectible for enthusiasts of Greek classics and Florentine editions of the nineteenth century.