Alessandro Vellutello was a Lucchese intellectual active in Venice from about 1515. In 1544 he published his commentary, La Comedia di Dante Alighieri con la nova esposizione with the printer Francesco Marcolini. Antonfrancesco Doni notes in his 1550 Libraria, Vellutello "strained his mind, expenses and expended considerable time" in having the 87 illustrations engraved. Possibly executed by Giovanni Britto, who worked as an engraver for Marcolini, these illustrations are the most distinctive Renaissance renditions of the poem after Botticelli's. Each scene records one or more scenes from the cantos illustrated. For the Inferno, the illustrator uses a striking a circular design and aerial-like perspective. Unlike the majority of illustrations which accompany sixteenth-century printed editions of the Commedia, these depictions are closely related to Vellutello's glosses. The illustrations seek to render the narrative accurately, much as Vellutello's exposition seeks to do.

Deborah Parker