From Florentine publisher Leo S. Olschki’s September newsletter – a new facsimile edition of the 1502 Aldine press edition of the Commedia. The press release is here. Only some is Englished so the first part is hastily put below, as is a closer up photo of my just arrived copy.
It is thanks to Aldus Manutius if the exile Machiavelli was able to read Dante and Petrarch during the halts in his walks in the woods surrounding Sant’Andrea in Percussina, on the border of Florence. The production of “handheld books”(enchiridia) was inaugurated with Virgil in 1501. The format (8vo) was until then dedicated to devotional texts. These small books lack commentary – the reading should run easily for the reader – and are free from the scholarly frills essential for other types of editions. For the Divine Comedy specifically the title – strangely, considering tradition – is not even explained: Dante’s Three Poems
Extracts 