The Rare Books collection of the UF Libraries has purchased a remarkable facsimile of an early parchment manuscript of Dante’s Divine Comedy, MS1102 from the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome. The text of this 14th-century codex includes all three cantiche, but only the 34 Inferno illuminations were completed. They are in a deluxe Bolognese style, and provide insights into early interpretations of Dante’s vision of Hell. (Featured image: Canto 17. Dante bids farewell to the Florentine usurers and, with Virgil, mounts on the beast Geryon to travel to the next circle.)
The reproduction of the whole book is magnificent; leafing through it inspires the scholar to think about into its creation–and the attitudes of its medieval owners, too.
The volume does not circulate but will be available in the Rare Books collection in Library East (PQ4301.A1 2016-Oversize).
The purchase of this Imago facsimile drew on both the Margaret Dreier Robins and Raymond Robins Book Fund for Labor, Civics, and Religion, and the Harold and Mary Jean Hanson Endowment. Thanks are due to John Van Hook and Sam Huang, among the librarians who negotiated this purchase.
For a while, an Italian video clip about the manuscript and facsimile are available at RAI Italian TV.
