ABSTRACT
Vittorio Alinari had launched in May 1900 an artistic competition, inviting Italian artists to contribute illustrations to adorn a forthcoming luxury edition of the Commedia. Alinari reached agreement with the publishing house, the Stabilimento Alterocca in Terni, founded in 1877 by a former schoolmaster, Virgilio Alterocca, which had started publishing postcards in 1896. As the photographic archives of the publisher preserved in Terni reveal, Alterocca published a wide range of material, including scenes from short films, especially films on historic subjects, or scenes from contemporary opera productions. This edition comprised only a selection of the Alinari illustrations, namely one for each canto, usually being a reduction of one of the full-page pictures, but sometimes instead an enlargement of the testata or finale. Dantesque postcards were not merely collected, but actually posted, can be demonstrated from chance finds in Italian flea markets.
