Object details
Object number
2.c.1.4
Creator(s)
Title
The Divine Comedy, Dante's Poem [Divina commedia, Le terze rime di Dante]
Date
1502
Medium
Printed ink on paper
Language
Italian
Publication Place
Venice
Binding Description
Crimson morrocco; overlapping scallops in corners; tooled back; gilt edges (Venetian, 16th century)
Description
1 Vol. (244 leaves, 486 pages) : paper ; 15.7 x 9.4 cm (octavo)
Dimensions
15.7 x 9.4 cm (6 3/16 x 3 11/16 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed in ink (er4, Inferno; lower right):' [indecipherable] miedebadan(?)"
Inscribed in ink (er4, Inferno; lower right): "1.iq 3iGd(?)"
Inscribed in ink (H4v, upper center): [indecipherable]
Inscribed in ink (t4r, Purgatory; lower right): [indecipherable] miedebadan(?)"
Inscribed in ink (t4r, Purgatory; lower right): "1iG 3i4(?)"
Enclosed: typed bibliographic description
Provenance
Collection of the art collector and watercolor painter Edward Cheney (1803-1884), by 13 June 1886.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Cheney sale at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London for £2.13 on 2 July 1886 through the scholar and critic Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908) and the bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819-1899), London, lot 544.
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Bibliography
Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge. Catalogue of the Choice Library of the late Edward Cheney, Esq. (London, 25-29 June 1886), lot 544.
Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Books from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston, 1906), pp. 2, 22.
Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Manuscripts and Bookbindings from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston, 1922), p. 96. (as Venetian binding)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 251.
Rollin Hadley. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 7 (17 Oct. 1965), p. 2.
Maureen Cunningham. “The Dante Quest.” Fenway Court: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (1972), p. 24.
Rollin van N. Hadley. Museums Discovered: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1981), p. 148.
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston: 2003), p. 72, ill.
Anne-Marie Eze in Jeffrey F. Hamburger et al. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Newton: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Cambridge: Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2016), pp. 17, 233, 241, 303, 311-12, no. 249, ill.
Gallery
Long Gallery
Case
Dante Case
Rights and reproductions
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