Codex Filippino of the Divine Comedy

The most important southern Italian manuscript of the famous Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), a giant of both Italian and world literature. Originating in the early Trecento and completed in the year 1321, the Divine Comedy is of exceptional significance for Italian literary history. Together with the Roman poet Virgil (70–29 BC), he traverses Hell, ascends the mountain of Purgatory, and finally enters Paradise. During this excursion, he meets approximately 600 souls from mythology, poetry, and history, who have to endure various punishments in Hell or dwell in Heaven, each in accordance with their own deeds. The tale enjoyed an extensive reception and has influenced men of letters, artists, and other creative types up to today.

A Neapolitan Dante Manuscript

The Codex Filippino is stored under the shelf mark MS. CF 2 16 and is named after its repository, the Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini of Naples, also known as the “Filippini” after the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory – Filippo Romolo Neri (1515–1595). It originated in Naples ca. 1350, making it one of the oldest Dante manuscripts, and is adorned with 146 mid-sized miniatures by a Florentine artist that help the reader to figuratively interpret events. Thick sets of marginal notes from several hands also append the manuscript. It was originally created as a luxury manuscript, possibly for the Poderco or Polderico family, whose coat-of-arms appears in the lower part of the frieze that frames the first page of the codex.