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).