Script: Humanistic characters in brown and red ink. Argument to each canto in red. Decoration: At the beginning of the text is a very large initial “N” in gold, interlaced by vine leaves and branches on a ground of red, blue, and green, with extensions of the same design forming a border which surrounds three quarters of the page. Circular escutcheon in the bottom border. Decoration: Two small historiated medallions in the spaces formed by the large initial, one depicting Charon crossing the river Styx, the other a gentleman holding a book open to the first words of Dante's poem. Decoration: In the right hand margin is a miniature of a seven-tiered tower of flames, with souls reaching out of the fire, an angel guarding the door. In the bottom margin, two putti support an escutcheon in the form of a wreath, inscribed with the arms of the Albizzi family of Florence. Decoration: Title and first verse are written in letters of gold, green, blue, and red. At the beginning of each canto is a gold initial on a ground of blue and red and ornamented by fillet work. Binding: Seventeenth century Italian paper boards. Front cover marked "No.347" and "1." Inside front cover inscribed "Cabinet 1.a. Drawer 2 CCXLIV in 2142 Catalogue." Black levant morocco case. Two paper fly-leaves, one watermarked with crowned armorial device. Collation: a^8, b^4, c-h^8 i^4, k-s^8, t^3. Signature marks in red at right lower margin on verso of last leaf in each gathering. Provenance: Owned by the Albizzi family of Florence. The names “Raynaldi Albizi” and “Di Maso degli Albizi” appear on fol. I, verso. Nineteenth-century bookplate of Lord Vernon (Sudbury Hall Library, Derbyshire). Auctioned at the Vernon sale (London, 1918), Item 173. Gift of Alfred Clark Chapin. Purchased on behalf of the Chapin Library from Lathrop C. Harper. Contents: Cantos I-XXXIII.
Do you have more information to share with the Holding Institution about this manuscript or would you like to suggest a correction? Contact information is available for member institutions via our member directory.
