La Divina Commedia by Dante. . .
From Eleanor Roosevelt To Her Son John
[Roosevelt, Eleanor]. Alighieri, Dante. La Divina Commedia. Firenze: G. Barbèra, 1896.
32mo.; pencil markings throughout; first few pages missing; edges stained red; cream cloth, stamped in gilt and black; spine lightly rubbed; joints slightly frayed. In a specially made quarter-morocco slipcase.
A pocket edition, published in Florence in 1896. Front endpaper missing, as are pages one and two of the text of the editor’s preface, by F. Ugolini. Dante’s three-part Commedia—including the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—is composed in tercet, with 34 cantos in the first section and 33 in the second and third.
A presentation copy, inscribed by Eleanor Roosevelt to her son John, in ink, opposite the title page: J.R.R from E.R. John included notations about the text – in Italian – on the first blank; he also underlined words throughout the first canto and provided their English translation in the margins. A remarkable survival from FDR’s miniature book library with the “miniature” library label—less than an inch square—printed and affixed by Hammer Galleries, on the front paste-down: “Library of Franklin D. Roosevelt”; and the lot number, “M107 No. 1459”, in blue ink in an unknown hand. We know of fewer than half a dozen volumes from this idiosyncratic subscript of FDR’s book collection that have appeared in the market in recent years.
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