Divine Comedy lettered

Description from Suntup Website

Suntup's edition of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is limited to two hundred eighty-one copies and is presented in three states: Numbered, Lettered & Roman Numeral. The edition measures 7¼” x 10¾” and is published in two volumes. Volume I includes the complete English translations of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso by Robert and Jean Hollander; and Volume II, a supplemental volume of over 1100 pages includes extensive and accessible introductions and generous commentaries that draw on centuries of scholarship as well as Robert Hollander’s own decades of teaching and research.

The text pages are set in the elegant Centaur type, a serif typeface by book and typeface designer Bruce Rogers, based on the Renaissance-period printing of Nicolas Jenson around 1470. Volume I is printed letterpress by Bradley Hutchinson in Austin, Texas on his Heidelberg Cylinder, and Volume II is printed by offset lithography. The letterpress volume is printed in two colors on the title, contents, cantica title and canto pages. The ornament appearing on these pages was designed for this edition by Jerry Kelly and was cut in metal and cast by Ed Rayer at Swamp Press. Interior design & typography is by Jerry Kelly and each state is printed on Mohawk Via Laid, mouldmade Hahnemühle Ingres and handmade Velké Losiny respectively.

Also included in Volume I are four tipped on illustrations by William Blake (1757–1827), and a portrait of Dante by Agnolo Bronzino (1503–1572), as a frontispiece to Volume II. William Blake’s watercolor illustrations were commissioned in 1824 by John Linnell, friend and patron of his last years, three of which feature as the frontispiece to each cantica. Blake’s 1800 portrait of Dante serves as the frontispiece to the edition. All copies are signed by Robert Hollander.

The Lettered state is limited to twenty-six copies and is an historical binding in full parchment from William Cowley in the United Kingdom, makers of the finest quality parchment and vellum since 1870. The book is sewn on parchment tapes, and laced into a semi-limp parchment cover.

The fore-edge of the covers are folded over to give the book more structural integrity and to protect the edges, similar to a traditional Yapp edge. The top-edge of the pages are colored red using Brazilwood, also called Logwood. This is a process for coloring edges dating back to the 16th century. The natural deckle of the paper is maintained at the fore- and lower-edge. The head & tail bands are hand tied over twisted parchment in red and off-white silk. They are laced into the covers as are the sewing tapes. The spine features a calligraphic title by Jerry Kelly which is stamped using printer’s ink. The book is housed in a Japanese cloth covered clamshell enclosure with a pull-out tray containing the supplemental volume. The William Blake illustrations in this edition are printed giclée on Hahnemühle Bugra.

Volume I is printed letterpress on mouldmade Hahnemühle Ingres Atique, and Volume II is printed by offset lithography. Weighing 12 lb, this state is handbound by master bookbinder Peter Geraty and his team at Praxis Bindery in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Also check the other states of the book:

Numbered - Roman