DORÉ (Gustave) - DANTE. Hell. English translation by Pier-Angelo Fiorentino accompanied by the Italian text. - Heaven. English translation by Pier-Angelo Fiorentino accompanied by the Italian text. Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1877-1868. - 3 volumes in-folio, 432 x 312: frontispiece, (2 ff.), IV, 194 pp., (1 f.), 75 plates (Hell); (4 ff. first blank), 204 pp., 41 (of 42) plates (Purgatory); (4 ff. first blank), 202 pp., (1 f.), 18 plates (Paradise). Printed red percalines from the publisher. Leblanc, pp. 78 to 80, a set of the 3 titles that make up Dante's Divine Comedy, masterfully illustrated by Gustave Doré, including a portrait of Dante in the frontispiece of L'Enfer and 134 (out of 135) plates on a tinted china background (75 in L'Enfer, 41 (out of 42) in Le Purgatoire and 18 in Le Paradis). Each board has a numbered and captioned snake. "One of the greatest enterprises that Gustave Doré conceived, studied and matured long before its publication... [He] did not hesitate to bury all his savings in the publication of this work. "You'll sell four hundred copies," Hachette kept telling him. The edition was printed at three thousand: it was sold out after a few days. Deserved success, for in no other work illustrated by Doré can we find more beautiful drawings than in this one" (Leblanc, p. 78). Hell first appeared in 1861. The copy that we have here is a reprint made in 1877 but it includes a letter from Gustave Doré to Joseph Michel: to my friend Joseph Michel // affectionate souvenir // GDoré This is Dr. Joseph Michel who was Gustave Doré's nephew and the artist's heir . Purgatory and Paradise are here in the first draw. Each volume is one of 100 numbered copies on wove paper. The first plate of Purgatory has been bound between pages 36-37 and unfortunately plate 15 in the same volume is