Divine Comedy MS. Holkham misc. 48

Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia represents the literary cornerstone of the Italian language and is widely regarded as being one of the most important and influential works of Western literature as a whole. Composed between the years 1308 and 1320, the epic poem presents the medieval worldview and concept of the afterlife through the eyes of the author/protagonist/narrator as he travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Although the original manuscript of this historic masterpiece has not survived to the present, four fully illustrated Dante manuscripts created during the 14th century are still extant today. This specimen is believed to have originated from Northern Italy, possibly Genoa, between 1350 and 1375. In addition to a historiated initial, each page of text features a splendid bas-de-page miniature, some of which are illuminated with gold leaf, for a total of 147 watercolors. The manuscript was acquired by Thomas Coke, the future Earl of Leicester, during his 1712–18 grand tour of Europe and was brought back to England where it remains in the collections of Oxford’s renowned Bodleian Library today.