1507, Venice: BARTOLOMEO DI GIOVANNI DA PORTESE
This edition illustrates the persistence of the 15th-century commentary
tradition, which, in spite of the popular success of Aldus' revolutionary
presentation of the simple text in octavo, will continue to find a public
among the theologians and other learned students of the poem. Although printed
seven years after the turn of the century, the book could easily pass for
an incunabulum from a typological perspective. For example, the book bears
only a primitive title page. Textually, the book merely reproduces the inferior
text of 1497, and bases its illustrations on those of the Venetian editions
of the 1490s. Of particular note are the rather curious capitals. Printers
often had a trademark series of such capitals which they used in different
texts, often without any particular regard for appropriateness to the work
in which they appeared.
The materially outdated character of the book suggests the anachronistic
status of the 15th-century vulgate within the altered 16th-century cultural
environment. The book's publication nevertheless marks the starting point
for a process of renewal and renovation of the commentary tradition which
culminates in the first 16th-century commentary by Alessandro Vellutello,
published in 1544 by Francesco Marcolini.
