Tutte le opere di Dante Alighieri Fiorentino nuovamente rivedute nel testo e diligentemente emendate dal reverendo dottore Edoardo Moore, ed ora stampate per la gentile cortesia dei distinti direttori della Stamperia dell’Università di Oxford.

Folio (410x287 mm).xiv, [2], 392, [6] pages. Text printed in two columns in Subiaco type. Headings and shoulder notes in red. Large initials in red and opening-words by William Graily Hewitt. Full-page woodcut depicting Dante, and five large woodcut headpieces by W. H. Hooper after Charles M. Gere; one diagram in text, illustrating the Quaestio de Aqua & Terra. Bound in original linen-backed Holland blue boards. On the spine title printed on paper label. An excellent copy, uncut.

Provenance: from the Ashendene Collection belonging to the Hornby family (on a loose slip the printed note ‘From C. H. St J. Hornby, Shelley House, Chelsea Embankment, S. W.', and in manuscript ‘Exhibition Copy. To be returned to above address'); Livio Ambrogio collection.

A splendid copy of the deluxe edition of Dante's works printed by the Ashendene Press, the well-known private press founded in 1895 by Charles Harold St John Hornby (1867-1946), which was active until 1935. This edition is one of the so-called ‘Triple Crown' of the three greatest fine-press books, alongside the Doves Bible (1902-1904) and the Kelmscott Chaucer (1896) by William Morris. The copy presented here is one of the only four recorded copies bound in linen-backed Holland blue boards, and formed part of the complete Ashendene Press collection owned by Hornby himself. The printing of this folio-sized volume – limited to 111 copies (of which only eighty-four were for sale), including six on vellum – took three years to complete.
The volume is printed on specially hand-made Batchelor paper, with the fine Subiaco type designed by Hornby's friends and close collaborators Emery Walker and Sydney Carlyle Cockerell. The volume opens with a short preface by Hornby, in which he dedicates his publication “a tutti coloro i quali portano, al pari di me, amore e riverenza al Divino Poeta” (“to all those who, like me, love and revere the Divine Poet”). The edition is also famous for its illustrations, designed by Charles M. Gere, an artist influenced in his early works by the Pre-Raphaelite school, and the Commedia is introduced by a fine full-page woodcut portrait of Dante holding his book, with the city of Florence in the background. The outstanding calligrapher William Graily Hewitt was employed to design and execute the handsome red initials and other decorations throughout the book.