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Book/Printed Material The Divine Comedy. La divina commedia

About this Item

Title

  • The Divine Comedy.

Other Title

  • La divina commedia

Summary

  • This celebrated manuscript of the Commedia of Dante Alighieri (1265--1321) containing the complete text of the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso was copied in the hand of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313--75) and is one of the most splendid manuscripts in the collection of the Biblioteca Riccardiana. Boccaccio illustrated the manuscript with five pen drawings in the lower margin of a series of leaves in the Inferno. These images were authenticated in 1992 by the noted Florentine scholar Maria Grazia Ciardi Duprè dal Poggetto. The most complete drawing depicts Dante in conversation with Virgil, set in a landscape of trees and mountains, populated by a lion, a leopard, and a wolf, suggesting the motif of the "peaceable kingdom." According to Ciardi Duprè, the images are consistent with others known to be by Boccaccio. The text also includes a brief introduction to each of the three parts of the poem. In the 15th century, the manuscript belonged to Bartolomeo di Benedetto Fortini (1402--70), a prosperous citizen of Florence, and an ownership inscription in Bartolomeo's hand appears on the final leaf of the manuscript. Best known for his fictional masterpiece Il Decameron (The Decameron), Boccaccio was an important early interpreter of Dante. In 1373 he gave a series of lectures on the poet that resulted in a major commentary, Esposizioni sopra la Commedia di Dante. It was Boccaccio who first applied the epithet "divine" to Dante's poem, which Dante himself had simply called Comedia.

Names

  • Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375 Illustrator.
  • Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321 Author.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1313 to 1450]

Headings

  • -  Italy
  • -  1265 to 1321
  • -  Italian poetry
  • -  Literature, Medieval
  • -  Poetry

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 187 folios ; 295 x 195 millimeters.
  • -  Original resource at: Riccardiana Library of Florence.
  • -  Content in Italian.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021667870

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Boccaccio, Giovanni, Illustrator, and Author Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1450, 1313] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667870/.

APA citation style:

Boccaccio, G. & Dante Alighieri, A. (1313) The Divine Comedy. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1450] [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667870/.

MLA citation style:

Boccaccio, Giovanni, Illustrator, and Author Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1450, 1313] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021667870/>.