La Divina Commedia illustrata da note da varj commentatori scelte ed abbreviate da Romualdo Zotti.

Four volumes, 12° (151 x 97 mm). [6], xlii, 418; 419, [1]; [4], 482; ccx, 448, iv, 8 pages. In the first volume frontispiece with portarit of Dante engraved by Luigi Schiavonetti (1765-1810), after Stefano Tofanelli. Contemporary brown leather. Gilt-tooled spines with title and volume numbering in gold on lettering-pieces. Marbled edges. A very good copy.

Provenance: ‘Isabella Iorde 1816' (ownership inscription in each volume); Livio Ambrogio collection.

The first edition of the Commedia in Italian vernacular appeared in Britain, and published by the Italian exiled Romualdo Zotti, who in London had established a printing house in Broad Street. The text of Dante's poem is based on the Roman edition of 1791, while for the notes Zotti made use of the commentaries by Pompeo Venturi and Luigi Portirelli. The fourth volume, issued in 1809, contain the Canzoni e Sonetti, and the translation into Italian of the essay Comment les sciences influent dans la poésie (Dissertazione sull'origine della poesia italiana e sulla Divina Commedia), originally appeared in 1782-1784 in the Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres de Berlin.