DANTE Alighieri (1265-1321) - Antonio MANETTI (1423-97) - Commedia di Dante insieme con uno dialogo circa el sito forma et misure dello Inferno. Florence: Filippo Giunta, 1506.   First edition, unfortunately incomplete, of Manetti's important work on determining the size, shape and place of Dante's Inferno, a work that shaped Galileo's science. It is an edition of the Commedia difficult to find on the market, although well represented in libraries.   Manetti, architect and member of the Florentine Academy, analyzed the clues given by Dante to map Hell. He placed it directly under Jerusalem and gave it a conical shape, with a dome that resembled the dome of the Florentine cathedral, built by Brunelleschi, whose biography was written by Manetti himself. The woodcuts represent the first printed maps of Dante's Inferno. Manetti influenced not only Botticelli for his Carta dell'Inferno and in subsequent works, but also Galileo. The scientist's first public lectures, in 1588, were precisely on Dante's Inferno, when he argued in favor of Manetti against a rival analysis by Alessandro Vellutello. Gamba 386: "very rare [.]. Beautiful and highly reputed". Brunet II, 501: "belle edition qui conserve de la reputation, et qui est rare. Mambelli 20: "very valuable edition".   8vo (154 x 96mm). Leaves H1r-H2r with Praefatione di Hyeronimo Beniuieni cittadino fiorentino in elsequente Dialogo di Antonio Manetti ad Benedetto suo fratello; H2v-P3v: Dialogo di Antonio Manetti cittadino fiorentino circa al sito, forma, et misure dello Inferno di Dante Alighieri poeta excellentissimo, 7 woodcut illustrations dedicated to the infernal kingdoms, spaces for initials with guide letters (a composed copy from H1 with shorter leaves, lacking first gathering a1-6 with the full-page woodcut of Dante and the three fairs, also lacking G1-10, z1 and the final gathering P1-8, from which only a strip with the colophon is preserved, b1 repaired at the outer margin with a few worm holes, B8 with marginal repair with tiny loss, H3-H4 with some scribbles, final present leaf repaired at the lower margin with loss of text, some foxing and soiling). Early vellum with manuscript title on spine (minor wear). Provenance: some early marginalia.

Estimate € 500 - 800

Sold € 750