Divina Commedia sec. XIV

The codex contains Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. The copyist, who uses the littera textualis, is unique. The delicate plant motifs that adorn the calls from the third fascicle onwards also date back to the copyist. There were two illuminators of the watermarked initials.

The cantos of Inferno are preceded, each, by a miniature illustrating its subject. There are thirty-four miniatures in which episodes and figures from Dante’s Inferno are depicted on a gold background and in bright colours. The first scene occupies the space of two columns, the others a single column. In the Purgatory and Paradise sections, white spaces are reserved for cartoons that were never realised.

A single artist is responsible for the miniatures, of high artistic and expressive quality, possibly from the Mezzaratta workshop in Bologna (Ciardi Duprè Dal Poggetto). According to Salmi, an Emilian miniature, probably from Bologna, related to the style of Simone de’Crocefissi.

Provenance: The codex was acquired by the Angelica in 1762.
In the Inventory of Domenico Passionei’s library, preserved in Parma, ms. Parm. 875-878, is recognised in the ms. Parm. 878, p. 442 ‘Dante, codex in parchment paper with miniatures. fol.’.

Bibliography:
Narducci, Catalogus codicum manoscriptorum praeter graecos et orientales in Bibliotheca Angelica olim Cenobi Sancti Augustini de Urbe, Romae, Typis Ludovici Cecchini, 1893, tomo I, p. 459.
Catalogo Mostra Storica Nazionale della Miniatura, Palazzo Venezia-Roma, Florence, Sansoni, 1953, p.152, n.222.
Bassermann, Dantes Spuren in Italien, heidelberg 1897, p.218, tav.25.
Salmi, La miniatura italiana, Milano Electa, 1956.
Ciardi Duprè Dal Poggetto M.G., Fioritura tardogotica nelle Marche, a cura di P. Dal Poggetto, Milano 1998, pp. 74-76.
Boschi Rotiroti M., Codicologia trecentesca della Commedia. Entro e oltre l’antica vulgata, Roma 2004 (Scritture e libri del medioevo 2), p. 140 nr. 253