Beinecke MS 428               Italy, s. XIV^^ex
Dante, Divina Commedia

1.  f. 1r-80v  Nel mecco del camin di nostra uita/ mi ritrouai per una
selua obscura/ che la diritta uia era smarrita...ma gia uolgea il mio uolere
il uelle/ Si come rota che egualmente e mossa/ Lamor che moue il sole e laltre
stelle.  Explicit liber paradisi et per consequens finis totius comedie
dantis allegherij excellentis poete de florentia.

     Dante Alighieri, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata; G. Petrocchi, ed.,
([Milan:] Mondadori Editore, 1966-67) 4 vols.

2.  ff. 81r-82r  Questo capitolo fece messer busone da agobio sopra tutta la
comedia di dante.  Accio che sia piu fructo et piu dilecto/ a quei che si
dilectan di sapere/ del alta comedia uero intellecto...che speculando queste
cose uede/ Et cosi tutto 'l dicer suo si prende/ Fortificando la cristiana
fede.

     Bosone de' Raffaelli da Gubbio, "Capitolo" on the Divine Comedy, in 64
terzine; printed by F. Roediger, "Dichiarazione poetica dell'Inferno
dantesco di Frate Guido da Pisa," Il Propugnatore, n.s. 1 (1888) pp.
371-84.

3.  f. 82r-v  Questo capitolo parla sopra tutta la comedia et dicesi chel
fece el figliuolo di dante alleghieri.  O voi che siete dal uerace lume/
alquanto illuminati ne la mente/ che sommo fructo del alto uolume...Fin che
dal cielo non li fu data ata [sic]/ la qual li uenne per uoler diuino/ Nel
mecco del camino de la sua uita.  Deus canoris laudetur omnibus horis.
Explicit hic liber scriptor sit crimine liber.  Manus scriptoris francisci
predicatoris.  Explicit expliciat qui debet soluere soluat.  f. 83r-v ruled,
but blank

     Iacopo Alighieri, "Divisione" of the Divine Comedy in 50 terzine
(thus of the B group); printed by Roediger, op. cit., pp. 358-70.

     Parchment, ff. i (parchment) + 83, 306 x 227 (212 x 158) mm.  Written in two
columns of 46 lines.  Double and single vertical bounding lines for each
column; double upper and single lower horizontal bounding lines, all full length
and full across.  Ruled in lead.
     I-VIII^^10, IX^^2 (+ 1, f.81, before 1).  Catchwords in center of lower
margin.
     Written in round gothic script.
     Very fine initials and borders, similar in style and iconography to two
other manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, Florence, Bibl. Laur. Temp. 1 and
Rome, Vat. lat. 4776.  The Florence codex is signed by the scribe Simone
Camaldolese and dated 1398 (see Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 212-13, no. 38).
Three historiated initials, each with a personification with attributes:
f. 1r, 16 line, Divine Justice, a winged figure, seated on a lion and holding
a sword and scales (Inferno); f. 27v, 8-line (without descender), Divine Love,
a seated winged figure holding nest with a Pelican feeding its young from its
own heart (Purgatorio); f. 54r, 12-line, Caritas, a standing winged figure with
a flame in each hand and a head surrounded by flames on her chest (Paradiso).  Each
initial with a full border of fleshy acanthus, blue, orange, olive green, pink, grey
and gold, with tooling; birds in lower margin of ff. 1r and 54r; on f. 1r a
coat-of-arms, in lower margin:  azure, a chevron or, between two roses in chief
argent, a mount of 6 in base argent, probably of the Bini family, Florence.
3-line initials, red or blue, with mauve or red penwork with long intricate
flourishes often extending the length of the page.  Opening text of Inferno
adjacent to the initial of f. 1r in display capitals with penwork panels in
brown ink.  Initials at the beginning of each stanza stroked in yellow.
Rubrics throughout.
     Binding:  s. xvi.  Sewn on five double supports attached to wooden
boards.  The spine is square with well defined bands and red and green
endbands. Covered in dark brown goatskin, blind-tooled in mudejar style in two
sets of concentric frames; DO.IOAN.DE gold-tooled in the center of one, BORGA in
the other (see Provenance below).  Trace of two fastenings.  Gilt edges. Restored.
For color plate of binding see Kraus Cat. 100, no. 15.

Written in the late 14th century by the Dominican friar Franciscus (see art.
3; Colophons v. 2, no. 4159); original arms probably of the Bini family of
Florence occur on f. 1r (azure, a chevron or, between 2 roses in chief argent, a
mount of 6 in base argent).  Belonged to Juan de Borja, 3rd Duke of Gandia
(1495-1543), for whom it was probably bound.  Held by Ramon Fazoll in 1522,
possibly as collateral for a loan (note, f. 83v:  "Ramon Fazoll.  Lo tingue en
1 [?] a 15 de mars 1522.  per memoria").  Perhaps in collection of Ferdinand of
Aragon, Duke of Calabria (1488-1550); T. de Marinis believed it was no. 637 in
the 1550 inventory of the Aragonese library (La Biblioteca napoletana dei re
d'Aragona [Milan, 1947] v. 1, p. 198, v. 2, pp. 61, 221).  Ferdinand's library
was bequeathed to the monastery of San Miguel de los Reyes in Valencia, whose
ownership inscription (s. xvii-xviii) occurs on f. 1r of MS 428 ("Es de la
Libreria de S. Miguel de los Reyes"), and whose pressmark (0. 11) is inside the
front cover.  Expurgated by Fr. Antonio Ollet [?] in accordance with the
Sandoval y Rojas Index of 1612; note on f. 82v reads "Ex commissione
dominorum Inquisitorum Valentie vidi expurgaui iuxta expurgatorium nouum
Madriti 1612 et subscripsi ego fr. Antonius Ollet"; the passages censored are:
f. 8v, Inf. xi, 8-9:  Pope Anastasius' denial of the divine birth of Christ;
f. 15r, Inf. xix, 107-117:  on the Donation of Constantine; f. 61r, Par. ix,
136-142: Folco da Marsiglia's denunciation of the present corruption of the
Church and the "prophecy" of the removal of the papacy to Avignon in 1305.
The same inquisitor completed the expurgation of another Dante then at San
Miguel (now London, B. L., Yates-Thomson MS 36) on 14 Sept. 1613.  Unidentified
note of s. xviii on f. i verso:  "Comedias de Dante en Italiano.  Lit. A.
Nu. 3 n. 14."  Bought in Spain by Lionel Harris of the Spanish Art Gallery from
whom it was obtained by Ellis and Elvey.  Purchased from them by Charles
Fairfax Murray (1849-1919; booklabel).  While in his collection, it was
apparently examined by P. d'Ancona (La miniatura fiorentina [Florence, 1914] v. 2,
p. 169, no. 189); this is the same manuscript as d'Ancona's no. 188, which he
saw only in the 1908 Burlington Club exhibition or catalogue [see Bibliography]).
Purchased from Murray in 1906 by C. W. Dyson Perrins (bookplate, 2 tags with
nos. 57 and 83; G. Warner, Descriptive Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
in the Collection of C. W. Dyson Perrins [Oxford, 1920] pp. 156-57, no. 57,
pl. 62).  Perrins sale at Sotheby's, 9 Dec. 1958, lot. 14 (pls. 16 and 17, of
f. 1r and binding).  Purchased from H. P. Kraus (Cat 100 no. 15; Cat 110,
no. 1, with color pl. of f. 54r and detail of colophon, f. 82v) in 1968 by
Edwin J. Beinecke, for the Beinecke Library.

secundo folio:  che e principio

Bibliography: Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 212-13, no. 38, pl. 6 (f. 1r).
     Illustrated Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, exh. cat. (London,
Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1908) p. 119, no. 76.
     P. Brieger, M. Meiss and C. Singleton, Illuminated Manuscripts of the
Divine Comedy (Princeton, 1969) v. 1, pp. 38 (n. 24), and 47.

Barbara A. Shailor