Making The Divine Comedy More Accessible
Dante's poetry is beautiful, but the truth is that the implications and the richness of his references are incredibly complex. The Divine Comedy is more widely known than read. I wanted to create a more engaging version for generations to come.
La Divina Commedia – The New Manuscript includes:
- 384 Fully Illustrated Pages – 12” x 10” (30 x 25 cm.)
- 7 Years of Work culminates in one of the most beautiful versions of the Divine Comedy ever created
- Gorgeous Book Design Made and Printed in Italy, with Premium Materials
Choose your Edition: each is a unique gift for collectors, scholars and enthusiasts, and as an heirloom to pass on to future generations.
Each version comes in a decorated slipcase or deluxe protective case.
ANNIVERSARY EDITION | $ 179
- 15 two-page spreads + Maps of the Afterlife: 33 Pages in Full Color
- Red Hardcover Coffee Table Book with Custom Dante Overlay Design
- Soft Slipcase
- 3 Silk Book Markers – Black/Hell, Red/Purgatory, White/Heaven
- Your Name Printed on the Backers List
COLLECTOR EDITION | $ 289
Limited edition available in Italian or English. Gorgeous Bodoni binding on Italian paper, printed on unique next-gen press for deluxe finishing.
Individually signed by artist George Cochrane, book designer Giulia Fogliani, and publisher Giovanni Scorcioni.
- 15 two-page spreads + Maps of the Afterlife: 33 Pages in Full Color
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Bodoni Binding with Elegant Black Edges
- Custom Dante Overlay Design w/ Golden Details (Front/Back/Spine)
- 3 Silk Book Markers: Black/Hell, Bronze/Purgatory, Gold/Heaven
- Black & Gold Hard Slipcase
- Your Name Printed on the Backers List
HERITAGE EDITION | $ 489 (English version is Sold Out)
Only 30 copies available, ITALIAN Edition: Get it NOW or NEVER!
Limited edition bound in premium binding material: Fedrigoni ECF natural black paper, and Skivertex© by Italian maker Fontana Grafica in Milan.
Each copy can be personalized with a text chosen by the backer, printed in golden letters on the back cover of the book.
Individually signed by artist George Cochrane, book designer Giulia Fogliani, and publisher Giovanni Scorcioni.
- 30 two-page spreads + Maps of the Afterlife: 63 Pages in Full Color
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Personalized with your Dedication Text on Back Cover in Gold Letters
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Premium Material: Skivertex by Fontana Grafica (Spine/Slipcase)
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Bodoni Binding with Elegant Black Edges
- 3 Silk Book Markers: Black/Hell, Bronze/Purgatory, Gold/Heaven
- Black & Gold Hard Slipcase
- Your Name Printed on the Backers List
GOLD EDITION | $ 2,600
Limited edition (15 copies in Italian; 15 copies in English)
Hand-bound in elegant Bodoni binding. Spine is in genuine black-tanned leather by Conceria 800 (Livorno, Italy). Boards in black-stained ash wood. Hand-made design with 24 Karat Gold Leaf. Elegant gilt edges, with hand-sewn double color headbands.
Presented in a deluxe rotating case, that is perfect to display your prized Divine Comedy at home.
Individually signed and dedicated by artist George Cochrane, book designer Giulia Fogliani, and publisher Giovanni Scorcioni.
- 30 two-page spreads + Maps of the Afterlife: 63 Pages in Full Color
- Custom Dante Overlay Design in Genuine 24 Karat Gold Leaf (Front/Back)
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Hand-Bound with Solid Wood Boards and Black-Tanned Leather
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Bodoni Binding with Elegant Gilt Edges
- Deluxe Rotating Acrylic Display
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Your Name Printed on the Backers List
- Signed by artist George Cochrane
EMPYREAN EDITION | $ 18,000
Based on the Gold Edition, and Individually Hand-Colored by the Artist
The most lavish edition is strictly limited to 1 copy in Italian, and 1 copy in English.
To hand-color the pages George Cochrane will use his magnificent ancient pigments that include genuine 24 Karat gold, lapis lazuli, and the renowned verdaccio. All pigments are from Zecchi Colori, historical art supplier in Florence.
Hand-colored by the artist:
- 100 two-page spreads (200 pages)
- The final page of each of the three canticle (6 pages)
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YOU, the backer, will select three two-page spreads (6 pages)
The artist will hand-color the opening of each of the 100 cantos plus the end of each canticle (Hell, Purgatory and Heaven).
In addition to this, YOU, the backer, will pick THREE two-page spreads, and George Cochrane will hand color them in your copy.
INFERNO PORTFOLIO | $ 129
Five Drawings from Hell
Preserved in an elegant cloth-covered portolio (14 x 20"; 36 x 51 cm.) this selection of devilish artworks by George Cochrane emerge from Dante's Hell. With a certificate of authentication signed by the artist.
This portfolio is a beautiful and valuable set, a perfect gift, or ideal to be framed for your home.
This portfolio of illustrations captures a variety of scenes from Dante's Inferno, and includes a portrait of Dante in Florence.
- “I demoni del canto XXI”: Artist-made watercolor from pure, ancient pigments
- “Il puzzo del canto XI”: Lead and tin point on artist-prepared paper with pure pigment (Blu di cobalto medio/Cobalt blue medium)
- “Ritratto di Dante”: Silverpoint on artist-prepared paper with ancient pure pigment (Ocra calda d’Italia/Italian warm ochre)
- “La selva selvaggia”: Noce di galla - artist-made/ground watercolor from pure sanguine pigment using an ancient recipe
- “Porta dell'Inferno”: Artist-made/ground watercolor from pure sanguine pigment.
Shipping Cost
Shipping cost will be calculated after the campaign ends, so to charge you with the lowest available rate. The more copies we sell and ship, the better our shipping rate will be.
We cap our shipping cost to $35 for the USA; $29 for European countries; $19 for Italy. We will quote other destinations individually.
Over time, as I studied the centuries of illuminated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, I recognized the connection between them and comic art. Just like early editions of the poem, a comic tells an easy-to-read story using words and pictures in sequential order.
Medieval Manuscripts as a Source of Inspirations
The marriage of words and pictures to tell a story is powerful. I thought that if I used comic art techniques, I could create a more accessible and engaging version of the Divine Comedy that would change the way modern and future generations read the poem, and maybe, just maybe, the Divine Comedy would become more widely read than ever before.
On the Shoulders of Giants
I tried to understand seven centuries of art inspired by Dante’s work. I had to became familiar with not only Michelangelo, Botticelli, Gustave Doré, Joseph Koch, William Blake, but also Manfredo Manfredini, Ebba Holm, and Antonio Zatta. Studying illustrations alone was not enough: I desperately needed to see the exquisite medieval manuscripts Dante was familiar with, and to observe the relationship between the images and the text.
In Search of The Perfect Text
Once I saw the differences among Italian versions of Dante’s text, I began a research that took me back in time.
To underscore the philological uncertainty of the Commedia, I decided to transcribe three different sources:
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Inferno — Giorgio Petrocchi (1967): the most widely disseminated and generally accepted version of Dante's text.
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Purgatorio — Codice Landiano (1336): one of the oldest datable manuscripts of the Divine Comedy that has never been transcribed before.
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Paradiso — Codice Trivulziano 1080 (1337): largely considered one of the most “accurate” and finest of the early manuscripts of the Commedia.
The Commedia and Comics
American comic book writers had a huge influence on my work. Wallace Wood’s 22 Panels That Always Work became something I looked to frequently; for instance, having just a sliver of the face visible (profil perdu) at the edge of the page brings the reader closer to the scene.
Beyond the Italian Reader
George’s ambition is to spread his Divine Comedy all over the world using all the available translations. But his time on this planet is limited.
To reproduce Cochrane’s artwork in every language without losing the beauty of the handwritten text, we commissioned a typeface designer to create a digital font based on George’s lettering art.
We chose a contextual alternates font: each letter exists in 4-5 different forms that are randomly used in the text, so as to mimic real handwriting in the best possible way.
Why Charles Singleton's Translation?
The difficulty of translating Dante’s Divine Comedy has dogged scholars for centuries.
As George’s understanding deepened, he embraced Charles Singleton’s version as the finest. Singleton sidestepped the hurdle of Dante’s interlocking rhyme scheme by offering his translation in prose, and thereby freeing him to aspire to superior linguistic accuracy. His profound knowledge of Dante, resulting from years of his own cutting-edge research, informed his every word choice.
His commentaries, published separately, explained his translation decisions and explicated areas of ongoing textural disagreement.
George Cochrane is an Artist and Professor of Fine Art at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Florham Park, New Jersey. Cochrane’s foundational Italian experiences, including becoming fluent in the language, occurred during his junior year abroad. They began in Venice, as an intern at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. In Florence, his academic year included Studio Art and Italian language study through Sarah Lawrence’s resident program. He also studied Art History at the Università di Firenze.
Cochrane has widely exhibited his artwork, including the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) in North Adams, and the Castello dei Conti Guidi, in Poppi, Italy.
Columbia University invited Cochrane to publish his commentary on sixteen selected pages on their website “Digital Dante” (https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/image/cochrane-illustrations/).
The author has lectured and exhibited his Dante work in Italy and the U.S., and has upcoming events throughout the year.
The Museo Archeologico Nazionale dell’Umbria in Perugia will showcase Cochrane’s work in spring 2021.
What better way to reimagine Dante's work than to publish it with the help of businesses based in the same territory that Dante knew so well?
Facsimile Finder is a bookseller and publisher specializing in high-quality replicas of illuminated manuscripts. For the past 12 years, Facsimile Finder has been providing the world's leading universities and private collectors with first-rate reproductions of historical manuscripts.
- Clara Semprini, project manager
- Kiana Jones, editor and copywriter, press office manager
- Vanessa Para, photographer and videographer
- Sabrina Rossi, accounting and logistics
- Giacomo Cecchetti, publishing consultant
- Bottega dei Gozzi, artisanal bookbindery
- Alessio D'Ellena, typeface designer
Many thanks to Roberto Bini (Il Bulino) for borrowing the design of the deluxe acrylic case.
Risks & Challenges
As every other project in the world, from making pancakes to building a space rocket, there are small and big challenges that we expect to solve during the production process. The good news is the entire artistic work is finished, and that was true even before we started our Indiegogo campaign! Our long experience in the publishing business gives us plenty of alternatives in terms of suppliers and technical solution, so everything we expect to be challenging will be solved by our hands-on approach. George Cochrane, the artist, lives in New York City, while the publishing team, printing company, and the binding workshop are all based in Italy. The distance might have represented a risk but now that all the art is finished and already shipped to Italy the risk is negligible. We're keeping it safe and ready to become the most beautiful Divine Comedy you've ever seen!