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  • MS. Holkham misc. 48, p. 50
    Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford     Order image

  • MS. Holkham misc. 48, p. 50
    Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford     Order image

  • MS. Holkham misc. 48, p. 51
    Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford     Order image

Dante, The Divine Comedy

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Dante Alighieri

14th century, mid to third quarter

Manuscript

Dante’s great poem describes his visionary journal through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, guided first by Virgil, and then by the idealized figure of Beatrice. This is one of the oldest manuscripts of Dante’s poem, copied within a few decades of his death (1321), and one of the most copiously illustrated. Here, Dante and Virgil are in the ninth and lowest circle of Hell, the circle of traitors, who are shown imprisoned in ice. Among them, Count Ugolino can be seen gnawing the head of his enemy, Archbishop Ruggieri, while Dante tears at the hair of the Florentine traitor Bocca degli Abati.

Excerpt from Inferno, XXXIII 43-78, read by Francesca Magnabosco

Comments

What makes this a treasure?

Dear Virginia, please use the contact information on this page http://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/treasures-contact and the team can pass your questions on to a relevant person. Many thanks.

Posted by Alison Prince

On 22/03/2012

I am studying this particular manuscript for a Master's class and have a few questions about it that I haven't been able to find answers for. Is there anyone I can contact who might be able to guide me? Thanks you!

Posted by Virginia Bosley

On 22/03/2012

This is one of the real treasures of the Bodleian … what’s important about this manuscript is that it’s one of the earliest manuscripts of the poem. We think it dates to about 1350 so barely 30 years after the poem was completed. Not only is it one of the earliest manuscripts of the Comedy but it is also one of the most fully illustrated. Very rarely do we have an illustration on every single page of this poem… this is incredibly rich illustration running to, I think, 148 pages… it’s extremely lavish.

Posted by Prof. Martin McLaughlin

On 05/09/2011

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