Dante Alighieri. Divina Commedia. (With commentary by Cristofor Landino and appreciation of Dante by Marsilio Ficino). (On the last printed leaf:) Florence, Niccolo di Lorenzo, August 30, 1481. fol. Roman type, commentary printed around the verses; 57 to 60 lines (incl. header). 361 unnum. (instead of 372 leaves; Prooemium: 10 instead of 14 leaves, without the first and last white leaf and without the first and eighth printed leaves; Inferno: 153 leaves instead of 154, without the first white leaf; Purgatorio: 107 leaves instead of 108, without the first white leaf; Paradiso: 91 instead of 96 leaves, without the two printed leaves 85/86[L1-2] and the last three white leaves). With a large initial painted in red and black at the beginning of the first canto and two engravings (repeated) printed in the text at the beginning of the second and third cantos. Late 19th century parchment binding with gilt-stamped spine label. (This damaged). ISTC id00029000. GKW 7966. BMC VI, 628. Goff D-29. Mambelli 2311. First edition of the Commedia printed in Florence, the first with the very extensive commentary by Cristofor Landino and the "Gratulatio" by Marsilio Ficino. As usual, with only two engravings printed in the text. Complete copy except for four text leaves and the white leaves. "Niccolo di Lorenzo of Florence is the only printer thus far encountered that did not abandon copper engraving after the first asttempt. He conceived the idea of the first illustrated Dante. At the head of each of the one hundred cantos he planned for an engraving. A magnificent folio resulted, but the illustrations give an almost perfect picture of the difficulties which he was not able to surmount. Of the one hundred engravings contemplated, only nineteen were finished. No copy is known to-day in which more than three of these are printed on the same page with the text, but in the bottom margin of the page - simply because the printer in setting up the type had forgotten to leave space for it! To-day, we invariably find it badly cropped. The balance of the nineteen engravings - and only a ferw copies contain this full number - are alwys pasted in. Some authorities have endeavored to relate the engravings to Botticelli's designs, and to attribute them to the Florentine engraver Baccio Baldini. The discovery of a real series of Botticelli drawings for Dante, now at Berlin, which must be dated after 1490, has made rather short shrift of this theory." (Philip Hofer, Early Book Illustration in the Intaglio Medium, I, in: Print Collector's Quarterly vol. 21, No. 1, 1934, p.218ff.). "In most copies only the first and second plates are printed on the book's own paper, the others being ommited altogether or seprately printed and pasted on their places. In a few, of which this is one, the plate for Canto II is repeated at the head of Canto III. These illustrations influenced those of the Brescia and Venice editions of 1488 and 1491." (Dyson Perrin catalog, no. 23). The present copy shows the same peculiarity. The present copy was provided with 22 facsimiles of the original engravings at the beginning of the 20th century. What is very attractive about this copy is that the verses missing from the print - the edition, which was produced at great expense, is not very reliable! - were added by a contemporary hand (Inferono Canto VI 3 verses, Canto XXX 4 verses; Purgatorio Canto XXXII 6 verses and Paradiso Canto XVI 4 verses). Another peculiarity of this copy is that the recto side of the second leaf of the Purgatorio is not printed, whereas the verso side is printed correctly. Fingerstained throughout, also numerous browning and faint foxing. The first present leaf heavily stained, reinforced at the fold and with several holes. The lower margin of the first leaf of the Inferno has been cut away and replaced by a facsimile of the original engraving; also a tear, backed in the fold. A number of other leaves with old repairs in the margins and corners. Ownership inscription " Ex libris Nuti" or "Io Franco Nuti" on some leaves; a Francesco Nuti was one of the donors for the Dante monument in Santa Croce in Florence.