1564, Venice: FRANCESCO RAMPAZETTO

No listing of 16th-century Dante editions includes this imprint. Its extreme rarity is due to its odd history, a curiosity in the annals of early Dante publishing, providing insight into the commercial wiles and ways of the Venetian press during this period.

In 1564, the printer Francesco Rampazetto had in some way come into possession of unsold stock of the twenty year-old 1544 Marcolini edition with the Vellutello commentary. He may have wanted to take advantage of the same renewed interest in Dante following the Council of Trent which had stimulated Sessa's entry into the market. In any case, Rampazetto replaced the Marcolini title page and first folio with his own title page, and reset the dedicatory letter to Pope Paul III and the first page of Vellutello's "Letter to the readers" which had occupied the second folio of the original.

When he was not recycling old books under new titles, Rampazetto was occupied with an abundant output of approximately eighty editions between 1553-1576, including many books of music. He also contracted with the Sessa to print their 1578 Comedy. Among his printer's marks is the one displayed here depicting cloud-borne putti garnishing laurel wreaths with the motto: "Et animo et corpori" (Both for the soul and for the body).