Paradiso: The Illuminations to Dante's Divine Comedy by Giovanni di Paolo

New York: Random House, 1993. first U.S. edition. hardcover. Book VG-: hinge separating at p. 100 but binding intact throughout, else clean, unmarked./DJ VG-: clipped, mild shelf wear. 4to 223pp. 132 illustrations, 93 in color. from front flap: "The British Library's Yates-Thompson codex of Dante's Divine COmedy was created around 1445 for the library of the King of Naples. Its sixty-one miniatures of the Paradiso--the third and last book of the poem--are by the Sienese artist Giovanni di Paolo. Not only are they outstanding works of art, but they also represent how the poem would have been read in the middle of the fifteenth century. This cycle of illustrations is now reproduced in color for the first time. Unlike earlier illuminated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, the miniatures do not just portray Dante and Beatrice rising through the nine heavens of Paradise, but also illustrate the stories of the figures they encounter and many of the metaphors and classical allusions in the narrative. [. . .] Each miniature is exquisitely reproduced in facsimile--often with additional enlarged details--together with a commentary explaining the subject and its relation to the narrative." #02513 OVERSIZE/HEAVY ITEM WILL REQUIRE EXTRA S/H.