Dante’s Inferno
(Talfourd Press) The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Inferno. A Verse Translation by Tom Phillips with Images and Commentary. Two volumes. 34 fascicles, plus the title page and colophon fascicles. [London.] 1983. 140 images, most full-page. Boxed – 17.5” x 13.5” x 3”. Printed letterpress on specially made acid-free mouldmade paper tinted to the artist’s own specification, and incorporating his own signature as the watermark. Illustrations are etchings, lithographs and silkscreens. Most prints are individually initialed in pencil by the artist. Some watercolor additions have been made by hand by the artist to the edition De Tete and archive copies. Printed for The Talfourd Press at the artist’s studio in Talfourd Road, London, under the direction of the artist. The letterpress layout was designed by Ian Mortimer of I.M. Imprimit, where the text was handset in 14pt Walbaum. All the bindings for the work were designed and executed by Petta Erskine-Tulloch. The book was produced between MCMLXXXI and MCMLXXXIII, initial work having been done by the artist on both the translation and the imaging from November MCMLXXXI. An edition of 185 copies or so. General edition 1-100. Edition De Tete I – X: Archive Copies A1 & A2: Sponsors copies A-T: Copies for Subscribers AA-ZZ: Hors de Commerce copies 1-17: Artist’s Proofs AP1-10.
This is a Sponsor’s Copy No. N with the following handwritten words on the Colophon page: “of the copies/of the proper/edition for/backers A-Z/This is copy/N/Tom Phillips
LXXXIII”.
With the extra dedication on the front free endpaper of Vol. 1:
“For Deborah: her copy
signed this day in
Dade County (xvi/l/LXXXXIII)
with love from
Tom”
The back of the colophon page gives many details and states: “The book as a whole was finished on the seven hundredth anniversary of the meeting of Dante & Beatrice on the Ponte Santa Trinita on April XXX. MCCLXXXIII.”
Fine.
Related items: Artists' Books, Catalogue 37 - Summer 2009, Poetry, Talfourd Press, Tom Phillips