Divina Commedia : Dep. Breslau 7

Handschrift | illuminated manuscript | manuscript

This parchment codex contains Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (La divina commedia) followed by the Capitoli by Bosone da Gubbio and Iacopo Alighieri and a poem (Canzone alla morte) by Jacopo Cecchi. Just one copyist wrote the manuscript in the last quarter of the fourteenth century. The text is written in one column, even if two columns would have fit on the parchment folios. Several features of this manuscript suggest that it was made in Tuscany, perhaps even in the Florentine area: The specific parchment used, the way the scribe employs the littera textualis, the text’s layout and its illustrations all point towards a production in this area. Like in other Dante manuscripts of the fourteenth century, there are very beautiful Fleuronnée initials at the beginning of each canti. There are three miniatures (embedded in richly decorated pages) illustrating the beginnings of “Inferno,” “Purgatorio” and “Paradiso.” The first miniature encrypted in the N at the beginning of the “Inferno” shows Dante sitting at a lectern. The additional book decorations on this page repeatedly depict Dante. The miniature in the initial P at the beginning of the “Purgatorio” shows Dante with Virgil in a barque. The final miniature, marking the beginning of the “Paradiso,” displays Dante standing before God who sits in a mandorla.

Object Details

• Location: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany -- Dep. Breslau 7
• Extent: 176 Bl.
• Material: parchment
• Language: Italienisch
• Notes: P_Sondermat_Hss

References and Relationships

• Series: Handschriften digital ; Art of Reading in the Middle Ages: previously digitised item

Classification and Topics

• Keyword: reading culture ; Medieval (European) ; Reading culture (medieval) ; Reading culture (urban)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Dante <Alighieri> (Verfasser*in)
• Time of origin: Italien , [14. Jh.]

Further information

• PURL: http://resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000076C100000000
• Last update: 02.12.2025, 9:53 AM CET