1493, (29 November) Venice: MATTEO DI CODECA DA PARMA
This is a resetting of the Benali and Matteo di Codecà da Parma edition
of March 149[2]. It contains the same three full-page woodcuts and 97 small
vignettes. The illustrations are reimpressions from the blocks used in the
edition of March 149[2] by the same printer in conjunction with Bernardino
Benali (The Venetian Illustrated Book).
That Matteo di Codecà would return to Dante soon after his 149[2]
edition speaks for Dante's continuing marketability during the incunable
period. In fact, an analysis of Venetian imprints during the incunable period
shows that Dante was one of the leaders in the vernacular literary field
and more or less held his own against Petrarch (eight editions of Dante's
epic against eleven of Petrarch's lyric poems). In any case, the modern
distinction between Petrarch as a poet of the Renaissance and Dante as a
poet of the Middle Ages had apparently not established itself by the end
of the 15th century. That distinction will become pronounced only during
the 16th century in the wake of Pietro Bembo's vernacular reform, which
will privilege Petrarch and Boccaccio as contemporary models for poetry
and prose respectively, and relegate Dante to a medieval, or antiquated,
status.
