Dore Gustave

1904 · réf. 1057 — London: Cassell and Company 1904. First Edition. Six volumes folio. Bindings by La Belle Sauvage in full morocco elaborate gilt spines covers and doublures with morocco onlaid masks of Comedy and Tragedy grape and floral inlays in an Art Nouveau style upper doublures of each volume with copper medallions of Dante with a verdigrised patina. The signed "Sir Henry Irving limited edition" number 14 of 55 sets each volume with a watercolor frontispiece by William Satterlee after the famous Gustave Doré designs. 136 full-page wood-engraved plates on Japan paper after Doré. Red moiré silk endpapers hand painted drop caps and decorations throughout. Five of the six volumes skillfully rebacked with the original spines laid down some other points of restoration to the extremities rubbing to the extremities some cracking and chipping to the silk endpapers else internally clean and beautiful. The Divine Comedy’s enduring relevance and universal themes have cemented its status as a cornerstone of Western literary tradition. The vivid imagery makes Dante’s poem particularly well suited to a multitude of illustrative interpretations from Sandro Botticelli’s in the Renaissance to the Romanticism of Doré to the late stage historical-Surrealism of Salvadore Dali. Cassell and Company unknown books