Dante - Dante Guarneriano - 1300-2014

DANTE GUARNERIANO: ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS OF THE INFERNO REBORN IN FACSIMILE A sumptuous facsimile reproduction of the famous Dante Guarneriano, manuscript 200 of the Guarneriana Library of San Daniele del Friuli. Created around 1400, the codex preserves Dante’s Inferno accompanied by a vast apparatus of commentary. The pages faithfully reproduce miniatures, decorated initials, drawings, glosses, and the material characteristics of ancient parchment. The facsimile is accompanied by a volume of studies edited by Angelo Floramo. A modern edition of high prestige dedicated to one of the most fascinating manuscript witnesses of the Dante tradition.

ABSTRACT
Dante Guarneriano. Beauty in Code is an important facsimile edition published by Roberto Vattori Editore in 2014, dedicated to manuscript 200 of the Civica Biblioteca Guarneriana in San Daniele del Friuli. The edition includes the reproduction of the codex and a volume of studies edited by Angelo Floramo. The original manuscript, created between the late 14th and early 15th centuries, contains Dante’s Inferno and constitutes an important witness to the very early manuscript fortunes of Dante. The Guarneriana Library also notes that it is one of only three known exemplar copies today that transmit a wide version of the Latin commentary on the Inferno by Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli. Particularly fascinating is the decorative apparatus. The manuscript features three initial miniatures attributed to Bartolomeo di Fruosino, in addition to pen drawings, decorated initials, annotations, and spaces left unfinished, elements that allow us to observe almost from within the production process of a medieval codex.

MARKET VALUE
High-end collectible facsimile edition, notably different from a common modern publication on Dante. A specialist in facsimiles precisely identifies the Roberto Vattori edition, Udine 2014, and places it in his price range at €500–1,500. The presence of the original case and the two volumes is decisive for the value.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
2 volumes in the original editorial case. Edition composed of the facsimile of the manuscript and the volume of commentary and studies edited by Angelo Floramo. The facsimile reproduces in full the original manuscript, consisting of about 180 pages, in a format of about 38 × 26.5 cm. The facsimile volume reproduces with great fidelity the parchment leaves of the original: writing, marginal glosses, rubricated and decorated initials, polychrome miniatures, drawings, stains, irregularities and color characteristics of the support. Light-colored editorial binding; second volume dedicated to studies and critical apparatus. Both kept in the large illustrated editorial case. Copy overall in excellent condition. Interiors very well preserved. Visible light signs of use and some superficial marks mainly on the case and on the light bindings, as documented by photographs. In old books, with a multi-century history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. This listing contains AI Visuals. Refer to the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the item. The images are an integral part of the description.
Pp.:
Vol. I: 180 pp. (90 sheets).
Vol. II: 246

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Dante Guarneriano. Beauty in Code.
Anastatic edition of manuscript 200 of the Civica Biblioteca Guarneriana of San Daniele del Friuli, with volume of studies.
Edited by Angelo Floramo.
Udine / Tricesimo, Roberto Vattori Editore, 2014.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Dante Guarneriano is one of the most interesting manuscripts of the Comedy preserved in Italy. The original codex dates to around 1400 and is today preserved at the Civica Biblioteca Guarneriana in San Daniele del Friuli with shelfmark ms. 200. It contains the Inferno of Dante accompanied by a richly exegetical apparatus. Of particular importance is the presence of the Latin commentary by Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli, one of the earliest commentators of the Comedy. The codex also has notable importance for the history of illumination. The three initial miniatures are attributed to Bartolomeo di Fruosino, an important Florentine miniaturist active between the 14th and 15th centuries. The transcription is connected to the Florentine notaries Paolo Puccini and Pietro Bonaccorsi. One of the most evocative aspects is precisely its incompleteness: after the first miniatures and some pen drawings, the decoration is progressively interrupted, leaving prepared but unfinished spaces. The manuscript thus becomes a tangible testimony of the process of producing a medieval illuminated book.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Dante Alighieri (Florence, 1265 – Ravenna, 1321) is the central figure of medieval Italian literature and one of the foundational authors of Western culture. The Divine Comedy, composed in the first decades of the 14th century, tells the afterlife journey through Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso and constitutes, together, a religious, philosophical, political, and autobiographical poem. The extraordinary manuscript tradition of the work already in the 14th and 15th centuries produced a complex textual tradition. Codices like the Guarneriano are therefore fundamental not only as works of art, but as documents of the circulation and interpretation of the Comedy in the generations immediately following Dante.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The offered item is not an antique manuscript, but a prestigious modern facsimile edition produced in 2014 by Roberto Vattori Editore. The edition reproduces the Guarneriano 200 manuscript in its material and chromatic characteristics and is accompanied by a scientific volume edited by Angelo Floramo. The edition’s bibliography notes, among the contents of the studies volume, the Italian translation of the Latin commentary by Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli by Floramo himself and the transcription of the texts by F. Valerio. The edition is today listed in international catalogs specializing in facsimile reproductions of medieval manuscripts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Civica Biblioteca Guarneriana, San Daniele del Friuli, ms. 200 – Dante Alighieri, Inferno.
Dante Guarneriano: Beauty in Code, edited by Angelo Floramo, Roberto Vattori Editore, 2014.
Colomb de Batines, Bibliografia dantesca, Prato, 1845–1846, no. 309.
G. Mazzatinti, Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d’Italia, III, Forlì, 1893.
La Guarneriana. I tesori di un’antica biblioteca, Udine, 1988.
S. Bellomo, Dizionario dei commentatori danteschi. L’esegesi della «Commedia» da Iacopo Alighieri a Nidobeato, Firenze, Olschki, 2004.
The scientific bibliography relating to the code and the Vattori edition is detailed in the documentation dedicated to Dante Guarneriano.