Order Nr. 95860 THE DIVINE COMEDY. Alighieri, Dante.
THE DIVINE COMEDY.
THE DIVINE COMEDY.
THE DIVINE COMEDY.
THE DIVINE COMEDY.
THE DIVINE COMEDY.
THE DIVINE COMEDY.
THE DIVINE COMEDY.
THE DIVINE COMEDY.

THE DIVINE COMEDY.

(Dante).

Volume 1: Inferno. Volume 2: Purgatorio. Volume 3: Paradiso. Translated by Robert and Jean Hollander, Illustrated by Monika Beisner.

  • Verona, Italy: Edizioni Valdonega, 2007.
  • 8.5 x 12.25 inches
  • cloth, slipcase
  • 700 pages
  • ISBN: 8885033601
  • ISBN: 9788885033603

Price: $550.00  other currencies

Order Nr. 95860

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is one of the leading figures of world literature. His Commedia, probably written during the last 15 years of his life is - by common consent - the greatest literary work in the Italian language; it is also one of the towering achievements in any field of human endeavor. Often translated (and into many languages), the Comedy (the adjective "Divine" was added by an editor to the author's title in 1555) attracts new readers every year. This translation--a labor of love and the first ever by two poets--was begun in Florence in 1997 and completed in Hopewell in 2006.

This new edition of Dante's great work brings together for the first time the three volumes of the Hollander translation with the art of internationally recognized illustrator Monika Beisner. Beisner has created 100 detailed paintings for this publication, making her the first woman credited with illustrating the entire work. The set begins with an introduction by Carlo Carena and a foreword by Academy Award winning actor Roberto Benigni, known for his lectures and dramatic recitations of Dante's poem. The third volume ends with an appreciation by writer and cultural historian Marina Warner entitled "Monika Beisner: Illuminating Stories." Warner writes, "The hundred miniatures took her seven years to complete and the achievement is dazzling. The present volume reproduces her work full-size, with no strokes or drawing visible, but a pure glow of dense color, applied with brushes so small they consist of a half-dozen sable hairs. Monika Beisner has been scrupulously loyal to Dante's text, rendering gesture and position as described in the poem as well as its unsurpassed precision of spatial, geographical and temporal coordinates."

Monika Beisner was born in Germany, where she studied painting in Braunschweig and Berlin. Fellowships allowed her to continue her studies in New York and London, where she now lives. Her illustrations for children's books have earned her an international reputation and she has exhibited worldwide. Her illustrations of Dante's Commedia have been published in Germany and Italy. She has completed illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses. Her next step will be into the world of Gilgamesh.

Jean Hollander has taught literature and writing at various colleges and universities. Her third book of poems will be published later this year. In addition to this translation, she has published translations of works by Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Robert Hollander, Professor in European Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University, has published a dozen books and some eighty articles on Dante and/or Boccaccio. He is founder and director of two Internet sites, the Dartmouth Dante Project and the Princeton Dante Project.

The three volumes-Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso-are bound in full cloth with a dust jacket and are in a cloth-covered slipcase. The work has been set in Centaur and printed in a limited edition of 500 numbered copies. The first seventy-five are available as a deluxe issue, accompanied by an extra suite of illustrations, on Gardapat Kassica paper by Cartiere del Garda, numbered with roman numerals, signed by the artist, and boxed in a portfolio. The complete production has been carried out in Verona by Stamperia Valdonega Group. Distributed for Edizioni Valdonega, Verona.