 Botticelli's attempt to design the illustrations for a printed book was unprecedented for a leading painter, and though it seems to have been something of a flop, this was a role for artists that had an important future.The "Divine Comedy" consists of 100 cantos, and the printed text left space for one engraving for each canto.However, only 19 illustrations were engraved, and most copies of the book have only the first two or three.