Divine Comedy - Marciana Manuscript

Divine Comedy - Marciana Manuscript

The Divine Comedy by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1232) is considered to be one of the most important works of Italian literature and simultaneously established Italian as a literary language. Today, Dante’s magnum opus exists in countless editions, of which the specimen at hand is particularly artistic. The two-columned text is adorned by 170 imaginative scenes from the story and great historiated initials brilliantly introduce each of the 100 cantos.

The Poet’s Personal Vision

In his epic, Dante takes the reader with him on an adventurous journey of a very special kind. Together with the Roman poet Virgil, he traverses Hell, ascends the mountain of Purgatory, and finally enters Paradise. In doing so, each stage is in turn divided into nine concentric rings. 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.

Amazing Variety

It is unbelievable how diversely and creatively the numerous miniatures are integrated into Dante’s epic. They are not, as is typical, invested according to a consistent scheme, they are mixed instead into the text again and again in other ways. Sometimes they are surrounded by simple frames, sometimes these frames are broken up, and sometimes the rectangular boundaries are done away with completely. Equally so, the size of the depictions varies widely, which reach across one to two columns and even in certain cases encompass most of an entire page. Luminous blue and red tones, which are mostly combined with yellow or green, dominate the color scheme.

Dante’s Female Muse

At the age of nine, Dante met a Florentine woman who was born in 1265, who he is supposed to have adored his entire life. Beatrice, who was the same age as him, was the surface upon which he projected a woman carried off to heaven, whose early death at only 24 years of age allowed her to become even more of a muse and ideal figure. In the Divine Comedy, she is the woman who enters into heaven in order to elucidate the divine order to him. Since Beatrice is only witnessed in his works, her identity is as disputed among Dante researchers as is the question of whether she existed at all as a historical figure, or perhaps was only a fiction in his works.