The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri – 1895 | Longfellow English in Stunning Binding

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri presents Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s monumental translation of Dante’s allegorical journey through the afterlife, encountering mythical and historical figures who have been either punished or rewarded according to their actions during their lifetimes. Longfellow undertook the challenge of producing the first English blank-verse translation of the Divine Comedy, a line-by-line attempt at fidelity that popularized Dante among Victorian readers and quickly became a classroom and library standard. The translation was born of the meetings of the “Dante Club,” a gathering of Longfellow’s Cambridge peers including Charles Eliot Norton and Oliver Wendell Holmes, who collectively refined the work. Unlike earlier adaptations, his work aimed to convey both the structure and solemn cadence of the original Italian.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri
• Author: Dante Alighieri
• Contributor: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Translator)
• Publisher: Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; The Riverside Press, Cambridge
• Edition: Riverside Edition, 1895
• Binding: Brown Moroccan half-leather over marbled boards
• Format: Octavo (8vo), three volumes
• Size: ~ 8 in x 5.5 in (20.3 cm x 14 cm)
• Collation:
  • Vol. I: [2], 446, [2]
  • Vol. II: 440, [2]
  • Vol. III: 450, [2]
• Illustrations: Engraved frontispiece of bust of Longfellow in Volume I
• Contents Include:
  • Inferno
  • Purgatorio
  • Paradiso
  • Biographical and Critical Notes
• Provenance:
• Reference(s):

Condition:

Near Fine condition overall. The half-leather bindings are well-preserved with only light edge wear. Spines remain strong with gilt titling clear. The text blocks are tight and secure, with clean pages throughout and only minor age-toning. The frontispiece in Volume I is intact.

Why Collect This?

• Longfellow’s Translation of Dante in English
• Collectible association with Longfellow and the Dante Club
• Attractive binding

Item Number: #31147