Cloth binding for ‘The Comedy of Dante Allighieri’

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1865

Cloth binding

6½ x 4 inches

The cosmological iconography projects Dante’s symbolism: unashamedly esoteric, it appeals only to those with some knowledge of the poet’s writings. The designer’s bold simplifications are markedly at odds with the over-elaboration of trade bindings of the 1860s.

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Photograph and text by Simon Cooke

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