Dantedì, Naples National Library presents one of the earliest illustrated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy

On the occasion of Dantedì, the Vittorio Emanuele III National Library in Naples presents online a valuable medieval illuminated codex in high resolution that belongs to its collections. It is one of the earliest manuscripts of the Divine Comedy dated 1350-1375: the valuable manuscript, which has arrived incomplete, includes only a few cantos of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, and in a partial manner. It is also beautifully illustrated, offering a fundamental contribution to the study of the history of illuminated manuscripts in Italy between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the new high-resolution digitization allows a detailed and precise analysis.

The codex shows 76 pen drawings, some lightly colored in red, depicting scenes from the Commedia, accompanying the text. The illustrations, which we find only in the first two canticles of the poem, generally in the lower margin of the sheet, fit into the figurative culture current in Umbria in the second half of the 14th century.

For a long time it was thought to be Neapolitan, and the drawings were attributed to two Neapolitan masters. At the end of the last century, however, the illustrations were attributed to four Perugian artists, and more recently a different distribution and attribution has also been reached among them.

“The important and extensive presence in the Library’s collections of Dante’s work,” says the Library’s director, Salvatore Buonomo, “testify to the perception of Alighieri understood as the common heritage of all Italians, an expression of the cultural pre-eminence of our country. Particularly rich and lively appears above all the nineteenth-century documentation that flanks the tradition of critical studies, from Settembrini to De Sanctis, with the vision of Dante perceived as a civil poet, a prophetic forerunner of Italy, united and independent, valuable illustrated texts, original and exclusive publications and articles.”

Looking forward to displaying the vast material preserved in the Library in a bibliographic and iconographic exhibition as part of the Dante for All - Celebration of the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, the National Library of Naples is presenting for Dantedì on its social pages a showcase of Portraits of Dante, taken from the publications preserved in the premises among the most significant as well as the most peculiar and curious.

Image: Membranous manuscript of the Divine Comedy (1350-1375; Perugia)

Dantedì, Naples National Library presents one of the earliest illustrated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy

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