Dante Alighieri - Imago Editore - Divina Commedia Passionei (anno 1330): edizione facsimile - 2016

Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri

Ms. 1102

Copy number: 8

14th century (second half)
94 leaves
Application of gold leaf
Binding handcrafted
Calfskin leather with natural tanning
Hand sewing
Binding from the Library of Cardinal Domenico Passionei

One of the oldest and most precious copies of the Divine Comedy, the codex is decorated with miniatures plausibly executed in Bologna in the second half of the 14th century. It houses the complete text of the Dantean work, accompanied at the end by the commentary of Jacopo Alighieri (Dante’s third son) and Bosone da Gubbio. The thirty-four cantos of the Inferno are preceded, each by a miniature that illustrates its subject and figures, created on a gold ground with vivid colors. For the richness and quality of its illustrative apparatus, the manuscript plays a very important role in the history of 14th-century illustration of the Dantean poem, even though it appears, decoratively, clearly unfinished: the sections of Purgatorio and Paradiso contain empty spaces, intended for miniatures never realized. The copyist alone is unique, using the textualis script, and from him also date the delicate vegetal motifs that adorn the references from the third fascicle. Two specialists, however, worked on the filigree initials.

The manuscript was part of the rich book collection of Cardinal Domenico Passionei (1682–1761), whose entire library was purchased by the Angelica Library in 1762.

Complete copy with case and commentary.

Edition by Imago - The Nobility of the Facsimile, 2016