Inferno & Purgatorio

Dante Alighieri, Inferno. London: The Folio Society, 1998. Second printing thus overall, but first printing thus with a new binding (2004). Translated by Henry Francis Cary, introduced by Robin Hamlyn, with illustrations by William Blake. 325 × 230 × 39 mm. Pp. [1–2], [i–viii] ix–xviii [xix–xx], 1–151 [152–154]: [32] leaves of colour ‘plates’. Type: Walbaum. Printed and bound by the Bath Press. Bound in quarter dark-brown Nigerian goatskin leather with pale blue Moiré silk boards; dark red endleaves printed in darker red with ‘All Hope Abandon Ye Who Enter Here’. Dark brown slip case with one of Blake’s illustrations on the front panel. This translation was first published between 1804 and 1814, and was reprinted in a revised form (used here) in 1819. Blake’s drawings to Dante were made between around 1824 and his death in 1827, for a series of etchings that was never completed (one of the etchings is reproduced on the binding). Blake’s illustrations, despite being made during his final years when his health was failing, are vigorous and profound; and the volume is completely successful in design terms.

Near-fine book with pages tightly bound and free of any inscriptions, with only a small, shallow spot of wear to spine. In a near-fine slipcase with minor shelf-wear.

[together with]

Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio. London: The Folio Society, 2009. First printing thus. Translated by Henry Francis Cary, with introductory essays by George Melly and Michael Prodger, illustrations by Salvador Dalí. 326 × 227 × 28 mm. Pp. [i–vi] vii–xvi, [1–2] 3–154 [155–156]: [34] leaves of colour plates. Type: Walbaum. Printed by Les Heures Claires. Bound by Hunter and Foulis. Quarter dark blue-green leather, pale blue silk boards; dark blue endleaves printed with black lettering. Dark blue-green slip case with a colour reproduction of one of Dalí’s illustrations on the front. Through a collaboration with the copyright holders, this edition is the first to reproduce Dalí’s original watercolours.

Near-fine book with pages tightly bound and free of any inscriptions. In a very good slipcase with minor shelf-wear and a bump to rear.