One of the rarest Dantes in the world is back on the market

Never appearing at auction in the last century, the specimen comes from a historic private Milanese collection formed in the first half of the twentieth century and preserved for generations. It is among the most valuable Dante editions in terms of printing quality, philological reliability and rarity: just 16 specimens preserved in public libraries are known, of which only 5 in Italy. Mantua, the city that saw the birth of this edition, does not today have any copies in its public collections. Starting price: 340,000 euros.

Bibliographic rarity is accompanied by historical value. It was precisely thanks to the editions of 1472 that the Comedy began its path of diffusion through the press, progressively transforming itself into the most read, studied and commented on Italian book in history. For collectors it represents one of the greatest bibliographic trophies available on the international market today.

The auction also offers an important nucleus of fifteenth-century humanistic manuscripts, some decorated with original miniatures, on parchment and on paper, evidence of the final season of the manuscript book before the definitive affirmation of printing. Books of Hours, religious texts, medical works and rhetorical treatises coexist with the great authors of Latin classicism, from Cicero to Sallust, offering a precious insight into European culture on the threshold of the modern age.

The section dedicated to autographs is particularly rich, dominated by two lots of exceptional interest, including an impressive correspondence of Giovanni Verga and family members (over 1,300 letters dated from 1893 to 1912). This is an extraordinary testimony to the Sicilian writer’s private life and management of his family assets, which has remained substantially unexplored by scholars and capable of restoring the daily portrait of the author of the Malavoglia between Milan and Sicily.

The second great protagonist is Gabriele d’Annunzio present with over 80 letters addressed to the prefect of Milan. The correspondence, unpublished, rich in historical and personal information, documents the writer’s relationships with the institutions and offers new research perspectives on his public activity in the decisive years of his national fame. Also included in the auction are two long letters from Giuseppe Ungaretti to Marthe Roux, his Parisian companion and friend of Apollinaire, and a long poem in French taken from La Guerre. Among the masterpieces of the nineteenth century, the rare first edition of The Betrothed from 1825-’27 stands out, in three volumes which marks the birth of the great modern Italian novel. The twentieth century is represented by works that testify to the energy of the Italian cultural avant-gardes. Among these stands out the rare first edition of Cucina Futurista by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Fillia, a manifesto of a revolution that intended to transform not only art and literature, but even the way of eating. Between provocations, intuitions and surprising previews of contemporary cuisine, the volume remains one of the most fascinating documents of the futurist imagination. The sale is completed by a first edition of Canti Orfici by Dino Campana with an autograph dedication, a significant drawing by Renato Guttuso dedicated to Leonardo Sciascia and unpublished letters by Maria Montessori. Ideally closing this long journey in the history of books is the volume most desired by new generations of collectors: the very rare first Italian edition of Harry Potter published by Salani, in the refined variant that depicts the young wizard without glasses. A contemporary book that has already entered the collecting myth, a symbol of how the passion for books continues to renew itself through the ages and generations. (by Paolo Martini)