I’m currently sat in the Special Collections reading room surrounded by some AMAZING Dante bits and bobs and I couldn’t NOT blog about them, because it is an absolute travesty that they don’t get used more often.
Amongst the treasures I’ve been looking at today are a 1484 incunable edition of the Comedy, a TEEEEEENY tiny 20th Century English translation of the Vita Nuova and two 16th Century print editions of the Comedy.
Look how lovely they all look, cuddled up to each other:
And just in case you didn’t believe how little the TEEEEENY Vita Nuova is, I took a picture of it next to my hand. By the way, I don’t have hands like shovels or anything. My fingers are quite spindly, but they’re not inordinately long, so the book really *IS* that small:
I hope some of you will get to work with these beauts. If you’re taking Rhiannon’s book history course this semester you should get to see some similarly fabulous stuff and I defy you not to fall in love with them. I chuffing LOVE my job for this very reason!!
Sarah x
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