The Early Italian Poets from Ciullo D’Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300) in the Original Metres together with Dante’s Vita Nuova translated by D. G. Rossetti. Part I. Poets chiefly before Dante. Part. II. Dante and his Circle.

16° (178 x 120 mm). xxxvi, 464, [2] pages. Original editorial binding in black percaline. Covers decorated by gilt fillets. Smooth spine, with title in gilt lettering. Pastedowns and flyleaves in brown paper (detached the front flyleaf). In a half-morocco slip case, title, imprint, and the inscription '‘presentation copy' lettered in gilt. A very fine copy, a few small, insignificant stains and spots. Preserved in the volume a typewritten description of the copy by 'James F. Drake, Inc. New York'.

Provenance: Dante Gabriele Rossetti (1828-1882); gifted to Seymour Kirkup (1788-1880), on the recto of the half-title Rossetti's autograph inscription to Seymour Kirkup, ‘To Seymour Kirkup Eq with the Translator's best compliments Xmas 1861'. Preserved in the volume a note ‘Merry Xmas 79 years later Jim (?) Mr. Marston Elliot Drake'; Provenance: Livio Ambrogio collection.

An exceptional dedication copy, gifted by the author – the poet and Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriele Rossetti, an ardent admirer of the Florentine poet – to one of the greatest Dante collectors of the age, the English painter Seymour Kirkup (1788-1880), who – like many other English artists and intellectuals of the time – spent several years in Florence and is wellknown for having discovered in 1840 Giotto's portrait of Dante in the Bargello. Kirkup's vast collection was sold in 1871 by Sotheby's.