Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.3.6
Dante Alighieri, Divina commedia
Contents
Language(s): Italian and Latin
Corrections, additions and glosses throughout, mainly in Latin but some in Italian, many closely contemporary with the copying of the main text. The Latin glosses are extracted from the commentary of Benvenuto Rambaldo of Imola (d. 1387/88) , written between 1375 and 1380, and penned by the hand which also added rubrics, running headers, highlighted capitals, Dante's epitaph, the two sets of capitoli and a poem on f. 252r (see below).
Author name found only in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Canon. Ital. 97 , f. 193r.
Rubric added by a 17th-century hand (also responsible for the rubric for the next item and the subsequent poem).
Rubric added by a 17th-century hand (also responsible for the rubric for the preceding item and the poem that follows).
Title and author taken from rubric. Added by a 17th-century hand (also responsible for the rubrics for the two preceding items).
Eleven hexameters. 'Inscription [...] has been interpreted as referring to Emperor Charles IV and Cola di Rienzo, which would imply that 1447 should be read as 1347 (see Roddewig (1984), no. 57). This appears to be far-fetched' (Binski and Zutshi (2011), p. 415).
Physical Description
Two additional notes - one attached to f. [iv] verso, the other loose and stored with the manuscript - have been digitised but are not counted in this statement of extent.
260 × 180 mm.19th-century foliation:
[i-ii] + 1-2 + 3-250 + 251-252 + [iii-iv]
Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf, by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886) , University Librarian 1867-1886.
Collation
- Quires 1-318 (ff. 3-250)
1-318
Catchwords, in simple ornamental boxes.Layout
155-195 × 80-90 mm. Ruled variously in hardpoint, leadpoint and ink, frame only or frame and line. Single column, 30-35 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
The main text is written in textura scripts of varying formality. A 'master scribe' wrote the opening lines of Inferno (ff. 3r-3v) and the end of the first quire (ff. 10r-10v), and the opening lines of Purgatorio (ff. 80r-80v) and Paradiso (f. 163r, first two lines only) in textura praescissa. At least four scribes completed the rest. (See Moore (1889), p. 541-42, crediting Henry Bradshaw).
Glosses to Dante written mainly in Italian hybrida script; same used for ff. 243r-248v and 252r.
Text on ff. 249r-249v and rubrics on ff. 243r and 245v written in humanistic cursive.
Decoration
Fourteen-line historiated initial with internal void decoration, showing Dante and Virgil meeting a wolf, at the beginning of Inferno (f. 3r).
Thirteen-line historiated initial with internal void decoration, showing Dante and Virgil in a boat, at the beginning of Purgatorio (f. 80v).
Fourteen-line historiated initial with internal void decoration, showing God in a mandorla, enthroned on a rainbow, as revealed by Beatrice to Dante, positioned to the left, at the beginning of Paradiso (f. 163r).
Thirteen-line puzzle initial in red and blue, with infill and marginal flourishing in red and blue, at the beginning of Canto 28 of Purgatorio (f. 146r).
Two- or three-line plain initials in red, at the beginning of each Canto.
Capitals highlighted in red.
Four-sided borders at the beginning of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, comprising voluminous blue, red and green foliage, branches tipped with golden disks, birds, animals, human and grotestque figures (ff. 3r, 80v, 163r). The first border also contains a hunting scene, angel and three heraldic shields (see Provenance).
Additions
Leaf signatures and '+' signs (thoughout), and notes on contents and collation (rear pastedown), added in pencil by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886) . The latter are initialled 'H.B. Ln' (i.e. Henry Bradshaw, Librarian) and dated 1 March 1878.
Notes on the scribal hands, added in pencil by an unidentified 19th- or 20th-century hand, presumably after the addition of Bradshaw's notes (rear pastedown).
Binding
17th-century parchment cover over pasteboards, blind-tooled with rectangular frame. Rebacked by Douglas Cockerell and Son (i.e. Sydney Morris ('Sandy') Cockerell, 1906-1987 ), December 1958 (binder's report on f. [iv] verso). Spine label with title tooled in gold ('TRACTATUS M.S.') and classmark labels preserved on front pastedown.
History
'The Venetian dialect is very strongly marked' (Moore).
Provenance and Acquisition
Coats of arms of the Orsini di Patigliano, Becuti and Tricino families incorporated in border decoration (f. 3r), presumably indicative of early provenance or association.
Giachino da Saladuo : name inscribed on f. 252r, late 14th century.
Note signed by I. Zuchari on f. 1v, early 15th century.
Jean-Baptiste Hautin (approximately 1580-1640) .
John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: no. 1012 (front cover) in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts, now MS Oo.7.50(2), compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735) after the publication of Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).
Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I (1660-1727) : donation bookplate engraved by John Pine (1690-1756) in 1736 on the front pastedown.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Bibliography
-
Critical, historical, and philosophical contributions to the study of the <hi
rend="italics">Divina commedia</hi>, Barlow, Henry Clark (London, Williams and Norgate, 1864)
Contributions to the textual criticism of the <hi rend="italics">Divina
commedia</hi>: including the complete collation throughout the Inferno of all the
mss. at Oxford and
Cambridge, Moore, Edward (Cambridge, University Press, 1889)
Dante Alighieri, <hi rend="italics">Die göttliche Komödie</hi>: vergleichende
Bestandsaufnahme der Commedia-Handschriften Hiersemanns bibliographische Handbücher, Roddewig, Marcella (Stuttgart, Hiersemann, 1984)
Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University
Library, Binski, PaulZutshi, PatrickPanayotova, Stella (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
2011, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1017/CBO9780511780479)
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
