The Banco Rari 215 manuscript, produced around 1410-1415, is a remarkable codex of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, notable for its rich iconographic and philological value. At the beginning of each cantica, it features refined bianchi girari decoration—an ornamental style of intertwined white vine motifs revived in 15th-century Florence. A full-page illustration depicts Dante in profile, while three full-page watercolor drawings enrich the text: one portrays the three realms of the afterlife; another shows Dante meeting Virgil while fleeing the three beasts; the third illustrates Mount Purgatory. The manuscript also contains extensive marginalia by the humanist Bartolomeo della Fonte, including glosses, textual variants, and brief vernacular summaries of each canto. Formerly owned by Florentine banker Francesco Sassetti, the manuscript exemplifies the Renaissance reception of Dante’s work and reflects the scholarly engagement with this cornerstone of Italian literature.
We have 1 facsimile edition of the manuscript "Divine Comedy - Banco Rari 215 Manuscript": Manoscritto Banco Rari 215. Il Dante Fiorentino facsimile edition, published by Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana - Treccani, 2024
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