Dante's Dream on the Day of the Death of Beatrice: 9th of June, 1290
[Flysheet printing]
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Production Description
Document Title: Dante's Dream on the Day of the Death of Beatrice: 9th of June, 1290
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of publication: 1881
Edition: 1
Pagination: [1]
Authorization: DGR
Provenance
Current Location: U. of Texas, Humanities Research Center
Physical Description
Paper: quarto fly sheet
Dimensions of Document: 9 1/8 x 7 7/8 in.
Bibliography
- Gregory, “Life and Works of DGR” vol. 2, 143.
- Doughty and Wahl,
Letters vol. 4, 1919-20.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Copyright: ©Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of
Texas at Austin
page images | transcript
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
The date of this work is quite problematic. A letter to Treffry Dunn, undated but probably written in the mid-1870s (see Bennett, Pre-Raphaelite Circle, 177 n.4), suggests it was printed up well before it was first published complete in the catalogue for the Walker Art Gallery's Liverpool Autumn Exhibition (1881). DGR wrote the ekphrasis for his large oil version of his Dante's Dream picture. Although the broadside has no indication as to where it was produced, it was probably printed in London through DGR's publisher F. S. Ellis.
Textual History: Composition
The dating of this work may be indicated by the text of the Dante canzone which it incoporates. DGR produced at least three versions of this passage from the canzone: the text in Early Italian Poets ; a text written into a letter to Ellen Heaton (12 March 1856) (quoted in Surtees vol. 1, 42); and the text in Dante and His Circle . This printed text quotes the 1874 text. An early manuscript of the epigraph to the ekphrasis survives.
Printing History
The text of this flysheet has never been made part of DGR's collected works.