DANTE ALIGHIERI.

£3,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

La divina commedia. First Bremer Presse edition, number 130 of 300 copies on Zanders handmade paper. Published to celebrate the 600th anniversary of Dante's death, it was edited by the philologist Berthols Wiese. The titles and initials are designed by Anna Simons, a pupil of the British calligrapher Edward Johnston.The Bremer Presse was founded in Bremen by Willy Wiegand and Ludwig Wolde in 1911. Strongly influenced by the Doves Press and often described as its German equivalent, it "rejected ornament (except for initials) and relied upon carefully chosen types and painstaking presswork to make its effect" (Encyclopedia Britannica). The Gutenberg Museum at Mainz hailed it the "Queen of the Private Presses" (Franklin, p. 162).This edition is printed in a 16-point Antiqua type, the first Roman font of the press. "The felicitous balance of Symons's initials and Wiegand's roman type demonstrates the sheer simplicity and beauty of a Bremer Presse page" (Hunter & Kelly).The binding is signed "Bremer Binderer, F(rieda). TH(iersch)". A talented artist, Thiersch studied with Charles McLeish of the Doves Bindery before joining the Bremen Presse in 1913. Her bookbinding style, favouring simplicity over excessive ornamentation, was in tune with the press's philosophy.

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