Caption: "Dante, Divine Comedy, 'The central man of all the world' - Ruskin, Incunabulum, printed by Petrus de Piasio, Venice, 1491. Dante Alighieri, the supreme exponent of the Middle Ages, is, according to Ruskin, 'the central man of all the world as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral and intellectual faculties, all at their highest.' Dante's great work, the Divine Comedy, is an original creation. It is explained in his own words: 'The subject of the whole work, taken literally, is the state of souls after death, regarded as fact. Taken allegorically, its subject is man, insofar as by merit or demerit, in the exercise of free will, he is exposed to the reward or punishment of justice.' In the narrative of his journey, which was inspired by a vision in 1300, Dante is accompanied by two guides, 'Virgil, who stands for human reason, ... and Beatrice, who symbolizes divine grace.' Virgil cannot lead the poet beyond Purgatory, while Beatrice lifts him through the spheres of Paradise by contemplation. The last line symbolizes the new ‘love which moves the sun and other stars.’ The magnitude of Dante’s conception is no more wonderful than the composition and form in which he expressed it with metrical virtuosity through the hundred cantos. The lasting popularity of the work is evident from the thousands of editions printed and the vast critical literature that has been written concerning this work. This edition of the Commedia, printed in Venice, 1491, by Petrus de Piasio of Cremona, is one of the best known of all the numerous fifteenth century editions. For several years, (1480-1483), de Piasio was in partnership with A. Torresanus, into whose hand the equipment of Jenson had fallen after the latter’s death.”
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