Fine Books & Manuscripts

CARY, Henry Francis, translator (1772–1844). The Vision; or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, of Dante Alighieri. London: Printed for the author by J. Barfield, 1814. 16mo (114 x 72 mm). Half–titles. Original drab paper covered boards, original printed spine labels, uncut (Volume I lacking upper board, lower board detached; Volume II boards detached; spine panels and labels chipped, else clean); each with early yapped-edge straight grain morocco folding wallets titled in gilt. THE FIRST COMPLETE CARY TRANSLATION of the Divine Comedy and the first accurate commentary with about a third of the work devoted to notes. Initially, the three volumes sold poorly, but after Coleridge’s praise for the Divine Comedy in a Royal Institution lecture, it became the standard translation, being reprinted four times in Carey’s lifetime. A RARE SET printed at Cary’s own expense that PRECEDES the Taylor & Hessey imprint of 1814 with the only changes being the half-titles from roman type to gothic type and the imprints on the titles. OCLC only locates 2 copies in any institution (The British Museum and Bibliotheque Nationale de France) with no copies being listed at auction in the past 100 years. Cunningham, The Divine Comedy in English 28; Farrar & Evans, Bibliography of English Translations from Medieval Sources 1188.