Commentaries on Dante, etc.; Italy, late 14th or early 15th century (partly 1394?)

Title

Commentaries on Dante, etc.; Italy, late 14th or early 15th century (partly 1394?)

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Misc. 449

Place of origin

Italy

Date

14th century, late, or 15th century, beginning (perhaps in part 1394?); fols. 111–130 slightly later

Language

Latin

Italian

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment (FHHF), a few oblong holes, tears and pest holes

Physical extent

i + 192 + ileaves

Hands

Two cursive hands: (1) fols. 1-110, 131-191; (2) fols. 111r-130v, gatherings 12-13. Fol. 192r-v by a third hand.

Decoration

Historiated initials: fol. 111r (3 line), Christ; fol. 117r (3 line) saint with book; fol. 4v, head in profile.

Initials in red ink with purple flourishing, sometimes with figurative elements (e.g. fols. 57r, 58v, 110r). Initials for each canto, including for Inferno and Paradiso to the introductions of each canto. The verses placed next to the words of the commentary are underlined in red ink, paraphs in red ink.

Diagrams and spaces for diagrams, fols. 30v, 64v, 90r, 175v, 176v, 184v

Finely executed manicule, fol. 1v,

Spaces for initials, fols. 2r, 3r, 6r, 101r.

Binding

Sewn on four thongs, plain parchment over pasteboard. Marbled paper endleaves. On fol. i verso there are traces of writing in a similar script to the one of the first folio; they are not the result of transfer of undried ink as the lines do not correspond.

Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Provenance

Fol. 58v: nunc 1394 dici potest 94 annos fore completos quibus inceptum fuit hoc opus, with '94' seemingly over erasure in both cases, perhaps a scribal alteration giving the date of copying, since the date of the text itself is 1349.

Jacopo Soranzo, his MS. 537 in folio.

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Title

Jacopo della Lana, Commentary on Dante, Commedia

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Misc. 449

Date

15th century, beginning

Language

Latin

Physical extent

1 volume