DORE, Gustave and DANTE. Dante Alighieri's Inferno with dra - Lot 192

DORE, Gustave and DANTE. Dante Alighieri's Inferno with drawings by Gustave Doré. The greatest Italian classic illustrated on wood in "one of Doré's rarest books" (Carteret, 184). Paris, Hachette et Cie, 1868. In-folio, red half-chagrin, spine with false nerves, boxes decorated with gilded interlaced fillets, gilded title in stylized font, boards decorated with gilded title in the same font, gilded edges. IV - 194 pp. - 1 f.n.ch., a portrait-frontispiece of Dante Alighieri and 75 full-page illustrations. Some rubbing and spotting including headpieces, corners worn, slight dark discharge on first leaf before frontispiece, last quire (pp. 193-194 and f.n.ch) detached from previous quires with corresponding hinge cracking, foxing on covers, rare foxing in text. "Masterly illustration". Louis Carteret is rarely so categorical. Yet we have to agree with him when we contemplate the depth and precision of the large woodcuts scattered throughout the volume, the result of the great mastery of the best artists of the Second Empire, including Pannemaker (who signed the frontispiece), François Pierdon and Héliodore Pisan. They are all based on drawings by Gustave Doré, printed on a tinted background imitating China, and protected by a captioned serpente. Although the original edition was produced in 1861, our copy is slightly later (1868). It contains the French text from Pier-Angelo Fiorentino's translation above the original Italian text. A very fine publication, uncommon in this good condition. Source: - Carteret, 184 - Vicaire, II, 12