THE VISION; or HELL, PURGATORY, AND PARADISE, of Dante Alighieri. Translated by The Rev. Henry Francis Cary, M.A...With a Life of Dante, Chronological View of His Age, Additional Notes, and Index.

London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1892. The “Albion” edition, and a handsome early edition of this work - the first modern translation of Dante into English. Additionally included in this edition is a Life of Dante, Chronological view of his age, Notes and an Index. 8vo, in a handsome binding of full maroon morocco of the period, the boards bordered with triple gilt fillet frames and gilt tooled corner pieces, the board edges and turn-ins also handsomely decorated, the spine with gilt stippled raised bands dividing gilt paneled compartments, the panels with corner tools and triple gilt fillet lines, one compartment lettered and ruled in gilt, all edges gilt.. Pp. xlvii, 496 pp. A very handsome copy, clean, fresh and sound. A HANDSOME EARLY EDITION OF CARY’S HIGHLY IMPORTANT TRANSLATION OF DANTE INTO ENGLISH. Cary’s famous translation has long been considered the first modern rendering of Dante’s timeless epic into English. While previous English translations prior to Cary’s had been accomplished in the 18th century, none were able to transfer into the English language, the beauty and richness of language for which Dante has forever been revered.
It took Cary many years to make the complete translation. Indeed, the parts of the COMEDY were released over a number of years from 1805 on. Cary was influenced greatly by the Romantics and by Coleridge in particular. Though the text was finished in mid-1812, Cary was unable to secure a publisher and was, after some years, obliged even with his very modest means to publish the work at his own expense. It at first excited little attention, but it came under great notice primarily because of the applause of Coleridge whom Cary had met while pacing the beach reading Homer to his son. ‘Sir,’ said Coleridge, attracted by the sound of the Greek, ‘yours is a face I should know. I am Samuel Taylor Coleridge.’ “During the rest of the day, the wondrous stranger discoursed on Homer making young Cary ‘feel as one from whose eyes the scales were just removed,’ and in the evening carried home the translation of Dante, of which he had never even heard. The next day he was able to repeat whole pages, and his winter course of lectures gave it celebrity. The new and first edition published by a general publisher was secured in 1819, and ever since,...it has remained the translation which, on Dante’s name being mentioned, occurs first to the mind.”