This is a copy of Charles Lyell’s third translation of Dante’s poems. A botanist and amateur literary scholar, Lyell - father of the famous geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875) - was profoundly inspired by his friend and correspondent Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) (D’Alessandro 2004). Like Rossetti, Lyell approached Dante’s minor works as a key to decipher the enigma of the Divine Comedy, which he interpreted as an esoteric text concealing a secret message. This translation was published in 1845, the third of Lyell’s translations after The Canzoniere of Dante [...] including the poems of Vita Nuova and Convito (London, J. Murray, 1835), and The Vita Nuova and Convito (London, C. F. Molini, 1842) (Boulger 1893). The print of Dante’s portrait in the endleaf was drawn from Lyell’s own cast of the “Maschera Torrigiani”, a mask of dubious authenticity now at the Museo Bargello in Florence (Ciaranfi 1970). As one can tell from the ex-libris, the item on display was part of Frederick Griffin’s personal library of 2962 volumes. A prominent lawyer, solicitor to the Bank of Montreal, and counsel to the Board of the Royal Institution, Griffin (1798-1879) was also an erudite book collector interested in history, arts, and European languages including French and - most importantly - Italian (Robitaille 2009; Virr 2001). Griffin’s library was bequeathed to McGill in 1877 and presented in 1879 (Annual Calendar, 1879).
Full title: The Lyrical Poems of Dante Alighieri; Including the Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito. Translated by Charles Lyell, Formerly Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge.
Author: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321); Charles Lyell (1767-1849; translator).
Contents: p. iv-xvi, Preface; p. 1-7, Poems of the Vita Nuova; p. 8-10, Poems of the Convito; p.11-39, The Canzoniere of Dante; p. 40-46, Notes and Illustrations; p. 47-48, Index.
Date of publication: 1845.
Place of publication: London, England.
Publisher: William Smith.
Languages: English.
Physical description: xxxiv pages, 2 leaves, 144 pages. Portrait on the frontispiece. 170 mm.
Call number: McGill Rare Books and Special Collections, PQ 4315.52 L8 1845.
Catalogue: https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/425868252
Digitization: https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-rbsc_lyrical-poems-dante-alighieri_PQ431552L81845-20466
Previous owners: Frederick Griffin (1798-1879).
Ex-libris and stamps: Presentation Note of F. Griffin (without date). McGil ex-libris (1879).
History of this copy: The book was part of Frederick Griffin’s personal library of 2962 volumes. Bequeathed by the owner’s will in 1877, the library was presented to McGill in 1879 (Annual Calendar, 1879).
Notes: On the verso of the second endleaf, one reads J. Escalonne de l’Aigle Blanc, written in pen. The name is also written on page i.
Bibliography
Annual Calendar of McGill College, Session of 1879-1880. 1879. Montreal: Becket.
Boulger, George S. 1893. “Lyell, Charles (1767-1849)”, in Dictionary of National Biography, 34. New York-London: Macmillan, p. 319.
Enciclopedia dantesca. 1970. S.v. “Iconografia”, di Anna Maria Farancini Ciaranfi. Rome: Istituto Italiano dell’Enciclopedia.
Virr, Richard. 2001, “Frederick Griffin’s Library”, Coranto, 28, p. 4.
D’Alessandro, Jean M. Ellis. 2004. Christina Georgina Rossetti: The Italian Heritage. Pisa: ETS.
Robitaille, Isabelle. “Frederick Griffin-Biographie”. Dictionnaire des métiers du livre (unpublished communication).
Author and date of the record: Matteo Soranzo, 05/05/2021.
