Plut. 40.7 is one of the few manuscripts of the Comedy produced on paper during the fourteenth century that is preserved today. Its decorations allow it to stand out as one of the most interesting manuscripts.
The manuscript dates back to the third quarter of the fourteenth century, probably from the 1360s and 1370s (De Robertis 2018, 20), and is made up of all three canticas complemented by the translation of the commentary by Graziolo Bambaglioli as well as other glosses. The text of the Comedy is copied unto a single column at the center of the page and is surrounded by the commentary. Arabic and Latin numerals located on the left of the text link it with the glosses.
55 watercolor drawings fill the lower margins of Inferno, and an historiated initial, depicting Dante seated with an open book, his head supported by his left hand (an image which represents the sleep of the poet) is located at the start of the first cantica. The decorative plans of Purgatory and Paradise were not completed. Later, perhaps in the sixteenth century, one or two artists filled the lower margins of the pages with 67 framed illuminations. A full-page illumination on f. VIv depicts a winged dragon with a centaur on its head holding an arrow notched to its bow, as well as a golden coat of arms with two dolphins. It may have belonged to the person who commissioned the manuscript, or, more likely, to one of its owners (perhaps even the person who commissioned the second phase of decoration?)
The characteristics of the binding and of the diagram of Cosimo de Medici indicate that the book was in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana at the date of its foundation, in 1571. An elegant facsimile, faithful to the manuscript, was published by Treccani along with four analyses on the writing, illustrations and glosses (Commedia 2018).
Contents : Comédie, translation A of the commentary by Graziolo Bambaglioli and other glosses (borrowed from the Ottimo commento, the commentary by Iacopo Alighieri and the Chiose Palatine):
- 1r-76v: Inferno;
- 77r-157v: Purgatory;
- 158r-239v: Paradise.
Digitization 1: http://mss.bmlonline.it/s.aspx?Id=AWOIen8qI1A4r7GxMH0Q&c=Aliud%20exemplar%20[Dantis%20Comoedia]#/book
Digitization 2: http://www.internetculturale.i...
Date: third quarter of the fourteenth century.
Origin: Tuscany, probably Florence.
Scribe: anonymous.
Colophon: f. 239v, “Explicit liber tertius et ultimus Dantis Aligherii de Florentia. Deo gratias. Amen”.
Physical description
Support: paper, parchment guards.
Folios: IV + 239 + IV'.
Dimensions: 394 x 290 mm.
Quires: 1-98, 104, 11-188, 1910-1, 20-298, 306.
Script: text of the Comedy in littera textualis, commentaries and glosses in bastard with a base of mercantesca.
Binding: Medici, red leather with metal trims.
Decoration: The decoration is substantial throughout the text and was completed gradually over time. Two different artists probably worked on Inferno. The first painted the historiated initial N of the canto 1, reaching 11 lines in height and depicting Dante, Virgil and the three beasts. The second illuminator completed the 54 other watercolor paintings.
The illuminations of Purgatory and Paradise were created posteriorly to the production of the manuscript. They are framed and fill the lower margins. Each canto is completed with an illumination. Volkman (1908, 54) traced the source of the illuminations of Purgatory back to the wood engravings of the Venetian printed tradition of the Comedy (Commento di Christophoro Landino 1491), which was recently confirmed by Chiodo (2018, 36). Another artist using a similar source realized the illuminations of Paradise. A series of later drawings, perhaps preparatory, can be found in the margins of some of the folios of the last two canticas (e.g., f. 146r and 191r).
Watercolor ornamented initials, between 7 and 12 lines in height, mark the beginning of the cantos. According to Chiodo (2018, 37), these initials are painted by two different artists: one, older and also responsible for the drawings of Inferno, and the other, more recent, beginning at f. 207, seeks to reproduce the style of his predecessor. The only pen-flourished initial in the entire manuscript is the one that introduces the first rubric of the Comedy. The initial of each verse is colored yellow, and the first verse of each terzina is identified with alternating blue and red pilcrows.
Notes: an astrological map has been pasted on the pastedown endpaper. The scribe identifies similes in the text of the Comedy by using the word comparatio, in red, juxtaposed with the text.
Bibliography
Chiodo, Sonia. 2018. “Tradizione e nuovi modelli nell’illustrazione del Laurenziano Plut. 40.7”, in Commedia (2018), p. 25-54.
Commedia. Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 40.7. 2018. Edited by S. Chiodo, T. De Robertis, G. Ferrante, A. Mazzucchi. Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana.
Commento di Christophoro Lanino fiorentino sopra la comedia di Danthe Alighieri poeta fiorentino. 1491 [but 1492]. Venice: Bernardino Benali and Matteo di Codecà.
De Robertis, Teresa. 2018. “Struttura e scritture del Laurenziano Plut. 40.7”, in Commedia (2018), p. 1-24.
Volkman, Ludovico. 1908. Iconografia dantesca. Florence-Venice: Olschki.
Author and date of the record: Alessio Marziali Peretti, 01/09/2021.
English translation: Sara Giguère.
