THE SESSA FAMILY OF PRINTERS
The Sessa was an important family of printers active in Venice since the
beginning of the century. Giovanni Battista and Melchior Sessa were brothers,
sons of Melchiorre Sessa the elder (active 1505-1555), who published in
Venice from 1563 through the end of the century. A third and final Sessa
imprint of the poem (1596) was published by Giovanni Battista and another
brother, Giovanni Bernardo, a collaboration which produced 23 editions between
1596-97. The Sessa used a charming printer's mark, variously elaborated,
depicting a cat with a mouse in its mouth. A version adorns the top of the
first page of the Inferno in the 1578 edition to the left and includes
the motto "Dissimilium in Fida Societas" (a partnership that is
unequal in trust -- referring to the cat and mouse of the printer's device).
The Sessa acted as publishers of these three Dantes, but they had the books
printed by other well-known Venetian printers of the period: the first and
third editions by Domenico Niccolini da Sabbio (active, 1557-1600), the
second by Francesco Rampazetto (active,
1577-1602).