Unresolved provenance, verso titlepage of the Fagel copy of Divina Commedia. So far we have not been able to find out who hides behind these initials, but the combination of a symbol, initials and a shelf mark, all in a legible hand, may well be recognized by some. iii9’ which is evidence of systematic shelving. The verso titlepage holds the most important clue to its provenance: a Maltese cross, the initials AMB, or Lambda MB, and the note, ‘No. The manuscript title on the spine simply reads ‘Dante’. This binding might have been added in the eighteenth century, it certainly does not appear to be the original from the sixteenth century. The Fagel copy has a somewhat later stitched parchment binding (Dutch: splitselband) and has sprinkled edges. The titlepage has a woodcut portrait of Dante within a cartouche, which is derived from a portrait of Dante by the mannerist painter Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). The illustrations in this edition were printed from the woodblocks that were first used by Francesco Marcolini in 1544. It is a reprint of the edition from 1564, which was the first edition to combine the commentaries of Christoforo Landino and Allesandro Vellutello. The edition of Divina Commedia that is present in the Fagel Collection was edited by Francesco Sansovino (1521–1586) and published in Venice by Giovanni Battista and Melchior Sessa and brothers in 1578.
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