The hundred and thirty-six plates of this book in large format have been originally done for the French and American editions of the "Divine Comedy," between the years 1857 and 1868. That is to say: the portrait of Dante Alighieri (page 1); 75 plates for the "Inferno"; 42 for the "Purgatorio"; and 18 for the "Paradiso." In the American version, the English translation of the famous poem of Dante was the first ever done in this tongue, by Rev. Henry Francis Cary.
This edition presents these plates in their original order, of course: "Inferno" (Hell), "Purgatorio" (Purgatory) and "Paradiso" (Heaven). However, we added three more plates to illustrate the introduction pages of each of these three parts, beautifully drawn by famous Irish artist Phoebe Anna Traquair in 1890. To each of the Dore's plates, we added the numbers of the cantos and of the verses they are supposed to illustrate. Thus, you will easily establish the correct correspondence between each and every picture and any original Italian version or English translation of the "Divine Comedy." We also added to them the same corresponding excerpts of their "cantos" you could find in any original American version of the book (in two vol.: 1. "Inferno" 1861]; 2. "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso" 1868])-inasmuch as the verses of your version of this book are numbered, of course.
To those who are already familiar with the plates Gustave Dore drew for the "Divine Comedy": we scanned ours from original printings before we carefully restored them and "cleaned" small scratches and various printing imperfections visible on any original copies. We also reviewed their contrasts (real black inking instead of gray) so as to restitute their depths often lost due to insufficient inking during the printing process of the 19th century. That's why and how they seem to be of a higher quality than in any original printing."