Bidspirit auction | Gustav Dore Alighieri, Dante. Dante's

Gustav Dore Alighieri, Dante. Dante's Inferno. P. F. Collier, New York. New Edition. - This large-format hardcover volume of Dante's Inferno features the translation of the Rev. Henry Francis Cary and illustrations after the designs of Gustave Dore. The title page identifies the publisher as P. F. Collier, New York, and notes the inclusion of critical and explanatory notes, a life of Dante, and a chronology. The book is bound in publisher's green cloth with decorative gilt and black stamped lettering and a large central gilt-stamped illustration of a winged demon on the front cover (photo 1). The work contains a series of full-page black-and-white wood-engraved plates, several of which bear the signatures of G. Dore and the engraver Pisan within the plate (photos 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14). These plates illustrate various cantos of the poem with accompanying quoted text and line references. The text block is sewn, and the volume is printed on heavy paper stock with wide margins. The volume is in poor condition with significant structural damage. The spine is almost entirely perished, leaving the sewn text block and internal binding structure exposed (photo 3). The green cloth covers exhibit heavy fraying and loss at the edges, particularly along the top and bottom margins, and the corners are severely bumped with exposed board (photos 1, 2, and 3). Internally, the pages show significant wear including toning, chipping, and tears at the edges (photo 4). Several pages and plates show moderate to heavy thumb-soiling and occasional foxing, although the central engraved images remain largely legible and intact (photos 5-15). The binding is shaken, and several page clusters are loose or partially detached.