Divine Comedy - Florence-Milan Manuscript

Divine Comedy - Florence-Milan Manuscript

The Divine Comedy is the famous major work of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). He worked for over 10 years on this piece of world literature consisting of 100 cantos, which is an allegory for the soul's search for God. In three parts of about equal length, Dante undertakes a literary journey in the first person through the three realms of the world beyond: Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso). He encounters numerous historical, biblical and mythological figures along the way. His guide through the first two books is Virgil, who he truely admires. However, as he comes from pre-Christian times and is therefore not baptized, he is replaced in Paradise by Beatrice, who represents Dante's ideal of women, and later Bernhard of Clairvaux.

An Unusual Layout

The 14,233 verses of this poetic masterpiece usually take up the least space on the individual pages of the Florentine-Milan manuscript. They were placed in a single column and centrally on the parchment, with many pages often containing only a few verses. The frame of the poem is formed here in several respects by a two-column gloss, which accurately encloses the verses from left and right, as was more common for legal texts at the time. These extensive marginal glosses are not spontaneous annotations for study purposes. They were planned into the layout of the manuscript from the outset and contain the first comprehensive commentary on the Divine Comedy.

Trecento Dante Exegesis

Jacopo della Lana (after 1278 – after 1358) wrote his commentary between 1324 and 1328, just a few years after the poem was completed and not long before the present copy was produced. He was inspired by his two predecessors Jacopo Alighieri and Graziolo Bambaglioli, who, however, only partially glossed Dante's work. Moreover, Jacopo did not limit himself to a literal interpretation of the verses, but subjected them to a philosophical-theological reading - entirely in keeping with his own university education. His commentary also enjoyed immediate and lasting success through the use of the Italian vernacular.** Entire passages of the commentary were later included in the so-called Ottimo Commento or “Excellent Commentary”.

The Work of a Virtuoso Scribe

Particularly remarkable about the Florence-Milan Manuscript is the accuracy with which the poem and commentary were brought together. Especially in the first two parts of the manuscript, Inferno and Purgatorio, the pages were planned so meticulously that usually not a single line is left blank. A master named Galvano was responsible for this masterpiece of calligraphic art in Gothic textura rotunda. He immortalized himself on fol. 100r: “Maestro Galvano wrote el testo e la ghiosa. Mercede quella Vergene gloriosa.” It is disputed among scholars whether this refers to Galvano di Rinaldo da Vigo, who worked in Bologna, or Galvano di Tommaso da Bologna, who died in Padua in 1347.

Significant Initial in Vibrant Colors and Gold

Both the verses of the Divine Comedy and the glosses are decorated throughout the manuscript with golden Trecento initials, 199 of them historiated. While those in the glosses mostly show generic author pictures, the images accompanying the cantos usually open up a further level of meaning, as they do not simply illustrate what is being narrated. In the first two parts, for example, the sins that led the souls to the horrific places that Dante and Virgil traverse are often visualized. However, many initials also show biblical iconographies, which in turn take up Jacopo della Lana's exegesis of the work.