(London: For T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, In the Strand, 1802).

RARE FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF THE COMPLETE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE. Henry Boyd was a native of Ireland and was most probably educated at Dublin University. In 1802 he issued his three volumes of an English verse translation of the whole ‘Divina Commedia’ of Dante, with the preliminary essays, notes, and illustrations and dedicated it to Viscount Charleville whose chaplain the author is described to be in the title page. In the dedication Boyd states that the terrors of the Irish rebellion had driven him from the post of danger at Lord Charleville’s side to seek a safe asylum in a ‘remote angle of the province’. He worked on translations of the ORLANDO FURIOSO and in 1807 he issued the ‘Triumphs of Petrarca’.
Copies of the first complete COMMEDIA of Dante into English are very scarce indeed.
“Dante’s theme, the greatest yet attempted in poetry, was to explain and justify the Christian cosmos through the allegory of a pilgrimage. To him comes Virgil, the symbol of philosophy, to guide him through the two lower realms of the next world, which are divided according to the classifications of the ‘Ethics’ of Aristotle. Hell is seen as an inverted cone with its point where lies Lucifer fixed in ice at the centre of the world, and the pilgrimage from it a climb to the foot of and then up the Purgatorial Mountain. Along the way Dante passes Popes, Kings and Emperors, poets, warriors and citizens of Florence, expiating the sins of their life on earth. On the summit is the Earthly Paradise where Beatrice meets them and Virgil departs. Dante is now led through the various spheres of heaven, and the poem ends with a vision of the Deity. The audacity of his theme, the success of its treatment, the beauty and majesty of his verse, have ensured that his poem never lost its reputation. The picture of divine justice is entirely unclouded by Dante’s own political prejudices, and his language never falls short of what he describes.” PMM. Item #17697

3 volumes. First edition of the first translation of Dante’s DIVINE COMMEDY into English. Additionally, for this edition is affixed an extensive introduction and notes to each of the three books, a fine historical essay on the state of affairs in the 13th and 14th centuries in Florence, the very fine LIFE OF DANTE by Leonardo Bruni as well as an index to names and personages presented in the text. With an engraved portrait frontispiece of Dante Alighieri. 8vo, full contemporary diced calf, boards ruled in blind with triple fillet lines and gilt corner tools, inner roll tooled decorations in blind, spines gilt-lettered in three compartments, raised bands with triple gilt fillet lines, head and tail of the spine with fine gilt work, elaborate blind tooled panels in three compartments. vi, 408; [iv], 384; [iv],420 with the index. And with the half-titles, called for in each volume. A lovely set of this scarce work which rarely appears on the market. Internally very fresh and clean. The fine contemporary bindings especially appealing and in unusually nice condition.