Commentary on the Divine Comedy

Accession number:

MS M.529

Title:

Created:

Italy, ca. 1358.

Binding:

Early 19th-century Italian vellum.

Credit:

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913).

Description:

134 paper leaves and 6 vellum leaves (1 and 2 columns, varying number of lines), bound : paper and vellum ; 300 x 210 mm

Provenance:

Owned by the Bargagli family in Florence; owned by Conte Ranieri Falsacappa of Corneto Tarquinia in 1891; purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Leo S. Olschki; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).

Notes:

Ms. commentary on Dante's Divina commedia; written in Italy, ca. 1358.
Since Pietro Alighieri was still alive in 1359 (d.1362) it is thought that the 6 vellum folios might be in his hand. According to Rocca, p. 345-346, M.529 is supposed to be the existing copy of this commentary closest to the original. There are 8 verses in Latin on folio 43 that have nothing to do with the commentary, thought to be a cryptogram.
Old foliation in Roman numerals is found on the upper corner rectos beginning with fol. 45 with the numeral LI; runs to LVIIII (fol. 53) and then jumps to LXI (fol. 54), seemingly indicating a missing page; foliation then switches to CXII (fol. 55) and runs to what looks like CXXIIII (fol. 67); it is then too worn to read, but perhaps continues through fol. 73, discontinued beginning fol. 74, but the last fol. of the manuscript (fol. 134) carries the numeral CLIII.

Script:

cursive scripts

Language:

Latin

Resources:

Description/Bibliography

Century:

Genres: