Books

First edition, one of 150 copies of this finely printed photographic reproduction of Traquair's illuminated manuscript of Dante's Vita Nuova. Fairly well represented in libraries, this work is uncommon in commerce, with only two copies traced at auction. Often rebound, it is also uncommon in the original publisher's binding. Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936) was the first significant professional woman artist in modern Scotland and a key figure in the arts and crafts movement. Her best-known work is the Mansfield Place Church, which has been called "Edinburgh's Sistine Chapel" (NLS). Her illuminated manuscripts of the 1890s have been described as containing "an intensity of colour and tactile value" (ODNB). Traquair's output was varied and prolific, and from 1900 her diverse studio crafts "included the fashionable art of enamelling alongside book cover tooling and art embroidery" (ibid.). This edition also provides, at the end, an English translation of Dante's work by the distinguished American author and Harvard professor Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), originally published in 1860. Traquair considered Norton's translation as "better than any other I have read, and which seems to me to have retained the simple directness of the original" (Note). Octavo. Original white paper-covered boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, top edge gilt, outer edge untrimmed. With 44 photographic plates. Extremities rubbed with occasional spots of wear, short superficial splits to joints, but firm, boards a little scuffed and lightly soiled, tiny mark to margins of a couple of leaves, otherwise internally clean. A very good copy.

'Vita Nuova' is a collection of Dante's poems, interspersed with his commentary, which details his love for Beatrice and includes a vision of her death, showcasing Dante's early poetic style.