1572, Florence: BARTOLOMEO SERMARTELLI

Born in Florence of noble family during the first half of the 16th century, Vincenzo Buonanni was a student of classical and Italian literature and a member of the Florentine Academy. He maintained cordial relations with the literary personalities of the time, including A. F. Grazzini (Il Lasca). Buonnani's most noteworthy accomplishment is this edition and commentary of Dante's Inferno published under the title, Discorso di V. B. sopra la prima cantica del divinissimo Theologo Dante d'Alighieri del Bello nobilissimo Fiorentino, intitolata Commedia (Discourse of V. B. about the first canticle of the most divine theologian Dante d'Alighieri del Bello most noble Florentine entitled Comedy).

The edition is noted for its disconcerting lack of restraint or judgment with regard to the interpretation and the correction of the text. Il Lasca perhaps said it best in some verses addressed to his friend following the work's publication: 
Poi che tu dimandi, io son contento
Del tuo comento dir quel che mi pare:
Poco e da pochi commendar lo sento,
Ma ben molto e da molti biasimare;
E vorreber veder nuovo comento
Che'l tuo comento avesse a comentare;
Perchè ci metteria Dante del suo
Senza un comento che comenti il tuo.

[Since you ask, I am happy
To say whatever I think about your commentary: 
I hear it praised very little, and by very few,
While I hear it very much blamed, and by very many;
And they would like to see a new commentary
Which ought to comment upon your commentary;
For too much of Dante is lost
Without a commentary which would clarify yours.]
In spite of its perceived limitations, Buonanni's edition is significant for a number of reasons. First of all, it is the only edition of any part of Dante's poem to appear in the poet's native city between Benivieni's Giuntina edition of 1506 and the Crusca Academy edition of 1595. Moreover, Buonanni's commentary, in its familiarity with and use of Greek literature as a measure by which to consider Dante, foreshadows the beginning of the famous "Quarrel over Dante" initiated by the mysterious Ridolfo Castravilla (a pseudonym), who attacked Dante's Comedy in the same year for its deviance from Aristotelian poetic norms in his Discorso ... nel quale si mostra l'imperfettione della Commedia di Dante (Discourse ... in which the imperfections of Dante's Comedy are revealed). Thirdly, Buonanni's revision of Dante's text on the basis of early manuscripts, particularly upon "four good ones" which he possessed, marks, at least in its intentions, a new direction on the philological front, which will lead to the Crusca Academy's critical edition of 1595. The same assessment can be made of Buonanni's good intentions with regard to the recovery of historical sources important to an understanding of the poem. For example, he refers to materials in Guelf archives touching on Dante's political condemnation and subsequent exile. Finally, while Buonanni's exegesis does not illuminate Dante's language, it does cast light on the contemporary language of Florence, and also upon the geography of Dante's Inferno, which represented a continuing Florentine interest since Landino's commentary and Benivieni's edition.