A Shadow of Dante. Being an Essay towards Studying himself, his World and his Pilgrimage...

8° (190 × 128 mm). [12], 292, [2] pages. On the frontispiece woodcut portrait of Dante based on a drawing by Gabriele Rossetti, protected by tissue paper; four plates, including the maps of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise (The Universe. Section of the Hell; The Purgatory, The Rose of the Blessed), by Vincent Brooks Day & Son lith. Editorial red cloth, decorated in gilt; on the spine title in gilt lettering. Green wrappers, from the 'Powell's Booklovers Library'. A very good copy.

Provenance: on the recto of the front flyleaf, autograph address by Francesca Maria's sister Christina Rossetti to the writer Ford Hermann Hueffer (1873-1939), known as Ford Madox Ford, “Ford H. Madox Hueffer from his old friend Christina G. Rossetti September 25. 1891”.

Fifth edition, the first appeared in 1871, of this anthology of extracts from theCommedia.The work is a a striking example of popularity in the Victorian age. As the author states, "Dante is a name unlimited in place and period. Not Italy, but the Universe, is his birthplace; not the fourteenth century, but all Time, is his epoch” (p. 1).