Divine Comedy - Guarneriana Manuscript

Divine Comedy - Guarneriana Manuscript

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) became one of the most important authors of world literature with his primary work, the Divina Commedia. Originating in the early Trecento and completed in the year 1321, the Divine Comedy is of exceptional significance for Italian literary history. Together with the Roman poet Virgil (70–29 BC), he traverses Hell, ascends the mountain of Purgatory, and finally enters Paradise. During this excursion, he meets approximately 600 souls from mythology, poetry, and history, who have to endure various punishments in Hell or dwell in Heaven, each in accordance with their own deeds. The tale enjoyed an extensive reception and has influenced men of letters, artists, and other creative types up to today.

A Glimpse of Florentine Manuscript Production

This specimen from ca. 1400 was once owned by Archbishop Giusto Fontanini (1666–1736) and is named after its repository in Florence’s Biblioteca Civica Guarneriana, where it is stored under the shelf mark ms. 200. It is a splendid Florentine manuscript written by the scribes Paolo Puccini and Pietro Bonaccorsi and is prefaced by three splendid miniatures by Bartolomeo di Fruosino (1366/69–1441), a masterful and influential Florentine illuminator of the 15th century. One of them depicts Dante in a historiated “N”-initial seated at his writing desk wearing red robes in the style of an Evangelist portrait. It is a work in progress with marginal notes and translations as well as numerous pen-and-ink drawings adorning the rest of the text, but most of the spaces for them have been left blank. It is both a fascinating addition to the Dante tradition and a glimpse into the process of creating illuminated manuscripts.