Dante col sito et forma dell'Inferno.: Lo 'nferno e 'l Purgatorio e 'l Paradiso di Dante Alighieri

n.p. [Toscolano-Maderno]: Paganino e Alessandro Paganini, n.d. (likely between 1527 and 1533). Very Good. Octavo (16 cm); [248] unnumbered leaves, signed a-z, A-H\8. Italic type. Printer's cypher on verso of final leaf, reading "P. Alex Pag. Benacenses F. Bena. V. V.," generally interpreted to mean "Paganino and Alexander Paganini of Lake Garda made this. Viva Garda." Woodblock figures covering five pages at end, including an elaborate double-page map of the first canticle, and schematic representations of the "sins" outlined in the first and second canticles. In 19th- or early 20th-century white vellum over stiff boards, with gilt-tooled spine, and two red leather labels titled in gilt. Dated 1507 in manuscript on verso of final leaf. Mambelli assigns a date of 1506, even while acknowledging the opinions of others who assign dates of 1515 and 1527.

References: Mambelli, 21 ("edizione assai rara e pregievole"); Adams D-91 (postulating date as c.1525); Olschki, catalogure LIII (1903) # 651 ("impression fort rare"); Sander, 2318; Baroncelli, La stampa nella riviera bresciana del Garda, #47; Angela Nuovo, Alessandro Paganino, #84; Fondazione Valle delle Cartiere, Alessandro Paganini (exhibition catalogue) #35, Edit 16, CNCE 1155 (postulating a date between 1527 and 1533).

The date of issue of this undated octavo edtion of the Commedia, based primarily upon Bembo's redaction of 1502, has been tossed around, but recent scholarship has settled on the period between 1527 and 1533, when Alessandro Paganini published a series of classics in the octavo format. The house of Paganini, on the west shore of Lake Garda, was an eccentric firm that avoided the throng of Venetian printers. Alessandro and his father usually came out with books that looked and felt distinct from those of any other publisher, especially in terms of type design. The octavo Commedia is an exception to that rule. Although the Paganini italic font is a bit larger, rounder, and more readable than Francesco Griffi's Aldine archetype, it is not substantially different.