Commedia di Dante Allighieri con ragionamenti e note di Niccolò Tommaseo
Niccolò Tommaseo was a writer, linguist, and Italian patriot. His works include an important Dizionario della lingua italiana, in collaboration with Bernardo Bellini, and an edition of the Comedy. Tommaseo’s interest in Dante began at a young age, and he continued to study him and his works throughout his life (Mazzoni 1977). The editorial history of his comments on Dante demonstrates his durable passion. After years of preparation, he published a first edition in Venice, for the Gondoliere publishing house. A second, more ample, edition came out in 1854 in Milan. The third and final edition was published in 1865, again in Milan, by Pagnoni (Enciclopedia Dantesca 1970). Fifty-five neoclassical illustrations accompany the text of this last edition, realized by Federico Faruffini and Carlo Barbieri.
Tommaseo not only found fertile ground for his linguistic and literary studies in Dante’s work, but also a kindred spirit, full of political, poetic, and religious ideals. Tommaseo lived during the Italian Risorgimento, which, in 1861, resulted in the creation of the Kingdom of Italy. For Tommaseo, as for other artists and scholars of the Risorgimento, Dante was considered the poet of the homeland, ante-litteram prophet of the political unification of the peninsula.
The copy of the Comedy held by the Université de Montréal is a reimpression of the third edition that Pagnoni published, excluding certain parts of the previous one – which generated some controversy on Tommaseo’s part. The three volumes of the Comedy were part of J.A.M. Brosseau’s library, hence his conserved signature on the frontispieces. Brosseau, abbot and priest of Saint-Jérôme, in Québec, retired to Saint-Hyacinthe, where he died in 1940 (Le courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe December 27, 1940, 1). One part of his books became a part of Télesphore-Damien Bouchard’s library (Guttman 2009, 179), a Québec politician. Bouchard was a deputy and senator, minister, and president of the legislative assembly of Québec. Despite his well-known anticlerical sentiments, he had some religious friends, particularly Dominican Friars. At his death, some of his books were integrated into the Saint-Hyacinthe Library collection, while the rest were donated by his daughter Cécile-Éna to the Albert-le-Grand Library managed by the Dominicans of the Institut d’études médiévales. Other than the Comedy, Bouchard gave a copy of The Vision or Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise of Dante Alighieri and of the Dizionario dantesco by Giacomo Poletto. The collection of the Institut is present in the patrimony of l’Université de Montréal, who acquired it in 1995.
Full title: Commedia di Dante Allighieri con ragionamenti e note di Niccolò Tommaséo.
Authors: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321, author); Niccolò Tommaseo (1802-1874, author); Federico Faruffini (1833-1869, illustrator); Carlo Barbieri (1816-?, illustrator).
Content: Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise.
Date of publication: 1869.
Place of publication: Milan, Italy.
Publisher: Pagnoni.
Language: Italian.
Physical description: 3 vol. of 423, 492, and 495 p. and 55 illustrations. 179 x 120 mm. Half leather binding with canvas and parchment corners. On the back the inscription “Tommaséo | Commedia di Dante” and the name of the golden canticle.
Call number: Université de Montréal, Bibliothèque des livres rares et collections spéciales, Collection générale, PQ 4302 E69 T 661 1869.
Catalogue: https://umontreal.on.worldcat.org/oclc/53645242
Owners: J.A.M. Brosseau (1867-1940); Télesphore-Damien Bouchard (1881-1962) ; Institut d’études médiévales ; Université de Montréal.
Ex-libris and Stamps: vol. 1: on the front cover, label “Université de Montréal | Bibliothèque | des lettres | et des sciences humaines”, stamped in red “Pret” (barred) and “Document protégé”. Label is stuck on another saying “Institut d’études médiévales. Bibliothèque. Don de l’honorable sénateur T. D. Bouchard et de sa fille Éna Cécile”. On the front of the first endpaper, round stamp “Bibliothèque | St-Hyacinthe | Que. | T.D. Bouchard”. On the frontispiece, round stamp “Institut d’Études Médiévales | Bibliothèque | Université de Montreal”, overwritten by J.A.M. Brosseau’s signature. In the inferior margin of the frontispiece, access number “19242” for the volume of Inferno and following for Purgatorio and Paradiso. On the back, round label of the BLSH and, only on vol. 2, round label of the BSHS.
History of the Copy: the copy was a part of Brosseau’s library, then a part of Télesphore-Damien Bouchard’s. At Bouchard’s death, his daughter Cécile-Éna gave the three volumes to the Institut d’études médiévales de Montréal, whose library was acquired by the Université de Montréal in 1995.
Bibliography
Enciclopedia Dantesca, 1970. S.v. « Tommaseo, Niccolo », by Ettore Caccia. https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/niccolo-tommaseo_%28Enciclopedia-Dantesca%29/ (accessed on 27/07/2021).
Guttman, Frank M. 2009. The Devil from Saint-Hyacinthe, Bloomington: iUnivers.
Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe, December 27, 1940.
Mazzoni, Francesco. 1977. « Tommaseo e Dante », in Primo centenario della morte di Niccolò Tommaseo, 1874-1974. Atti delle onoranze tommaseiane. Firenze, marzo-maggio 1974. Florence: Olschki, p. 29-68.
Author and date of the record: Alessio Marziali Peretti, 27/07/2021.
English translation: Brittany Buscio.
