Beschreibung:

DANTE ALIGHIERI Divina commedia, Paradiso XI.103–XII.42, decorated manuscript in Italian [Italy, Florence, mid-14th century (c.1345–50?)] a single vellum leaf cut into pieces of various sizes, originally c.355(?)×235 mm; three large, two small, and eleven very small pieces, written in two columns of 42 lines; the pieces comprise:(1) the largest and most legible piece, c.170×105mm, plus the width of the turn-ins (approximately 5mm is visible, there is perhaps more underneath the paper pastedown), is used as the cover for one board of a printed book; it preserves more than half of a left-hand column and includes Canto XI.107–132; (2) part of one column of text, c.155×105mm, that belongs to the right of the previous fragment: Canto XII.10–33; (3) the bottom of both the previous columns of text, c.115×235mm: column 1: Canto XI.136–39, followed by a four-line rubric: ‘Canto .xii. nelqual frate bonauentura da bagnoregio delordine de minori in gloria di sancto domenicho parla & breuemente la sua uita narra.’; column 2: Canto XI.34–42; with a wide lower margin and centrally-positioned catchwords; (4) the top of the first column of text: Canto XI.103–105; (5) the top of the second column of text, with a 3-line initial in red, flourished in blue penwork: Canto XII.1–6; (6–16) small pieces, some with only a few words of text, or none; one contains part of Canto XII.7–9, and thus supplies text between nos. (5) and (2) above; another has the last words of Canto XI.134–35 and thus supplies text between nos. (1) and (3); others could doubtless be identified and allotted their correct places; one of the largest pieces is attached to one cover of the Tomus tertius orationum Philippi Melanthonis (Wittenberg: Caspar Peucer, August 1557), whose other board is covered with a piece of a 12th-century manuscript, written in a fine Romanesque bookhand, containing part of Jerome’s Commentary on Zephaniah (‘plebs universa consurgit … nec retinent sua pec[cata]’, Migne, PL, XXV, col. 1344); the blind-tooled 16th-century pigskin of the binding has a stamp with the initials ‘VFH’; the Dante pieces rubbed, stained, and otherwise imperfect to varying degrees, but the text on the verso is mostly easily legible TEXTAs enumerated above, the text comprises Canto XI.103 to XII.42 (‘Et per tornare a conversione acerba … non per esser degna [catchwords:] Et come e’), with only short passages lacking. Differences in wording and orthography between the present manuscript and standard editions can be seen in the very first words, which read ‘Et per tornare a conversione acerba’ as opposed to ‘e per trovare a conversione acerba’.This is an important new and unstudied witness to the text. The writing on the recto of each fragment is mostly illegible under normal light, but may perhaps be recoverable using digital image enhancement. PROVENANCEThe present fragmentary leaf is apparently part of the same parent manuscript as a leaf sold in our rooms, 1 December 1998, lot 16, with full-page plate, now Geneva, Bibliothèque de Genève, Comites Latentes MS 316. It was described as A HITHERTO UNRECORDED FRAGMENT FROM ONE OF THE ‘HUNDRED CODICES’ WHICH FORM THE PRIMARY MANUSCRIPTS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY, THE GREATEST LITERARY TEXT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. Like that leaf, the present one was found in the Netherlands in the 20th century; they doubtless share a nearly identical provenance. The sister leaf is the opening leaf of the Paradiso, starting with its rubric at the top of the left column. This is likely to have been the first leaf of a quire, but even if not, the fact that the text is written in verse, with a regular layout of double columns of 42 lines, means that the present leaf – the last leaf of a quire, with a catchword – may now allow the collation of the parent manuscript to be reconstructed. It hardly needs stating that 14th-century manuscripts in Italian are rare; medieval copies of the Divine Comedy are very rare (we have found none recorded on the market since the late-1