Ongoing Project: An Illustrated Copy-census of Dante, Comedia, Florence, 1481 with engravings by Botticelli

The 1481 edition of La Comedia was printed in Florence by Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus. It contains 19 copper engravings attributed to Baccio Baldini from designs by Sandro Botticelli, to accompany the first 19 Cantos of the Inferno. Some 166 copies survive around the world, from Japan to California, from Athens to Minsk.

Funded by The Polonsky Foundation, The Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) is coordinating an illustrated copy-census of this edition, which means the reconstruction of the distinctive history of each copy by interpreting the marks left by its former owners, such as decoration, purchasing notes, or annotations in the margins.

The data and images of provenance are gathered by Marina Venier (formerly Rome, National Central Library), while Camilla Marangoni (CERL grantee 2019) is creating records in Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI) and uploading the images onto CERL’s Provenance Digital Archive (PDA).

To date, some 135 MEI records have already been created. The enthusiasm for the project has been phenomenal, as has been the participation and support received from the libraries and their curators, for which we are very grateful.

Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, Inc. Parm. 628 a long chain of female readers: ’Questo Dante fu di Madonna Caterina mia madre, quale gliel dono madonna Lucrezia sua madre’ (this Dante belonged to lady Caterina my mother, who received it as a gift from lady Lucrezia her mother)

San Marino Cal., Huntington Library, 56986, missing tercets supplied by an early reader

The objective is the creation of a webpage, within the Printing Revolution website, with text, images, videos and maps to illustrate the edition and set the history of the copies in the wider context of the reception of Dante’s works, to explain how this seminal work was actually read and commented on by its contemporaries, and by later generations.v

Firenze, Biblioteca Provinciale dei Frati Minori, contemporary decoration and 16th-century Italian marginal annotations

Bologna, Biblioteca comunale dell’Archiginnasio,
16 H I 3, coat of arms and 16th-century ownership note of ‘Di Girolamo di Francesco Nentj’.

This collaborative project, which involves 130 libraries worldwide, will enhance the understanding of an iconic work of literature in their collections by setting it in its historical context with the support of a clear and effective narrative and compelling digital resources.

For CERL, this new way of bringing together our collections around a theme, whether an edition, or an author, work, or printing place or printer, with the support of our digital resources, is setting the blueprint for future collaborations. The knowledgeable examination of the books in our collections, the recording of the copy-specific data and uploading of the images in collaborative databases, the creation of effective outreach material and communication.

On 4 May 2021 this Dante edition was at the centre of a great multi-location remote presentation, which involved the copies at Florence National Central Library, London University College Library, Cambridge Trinity College, Oxford Bodleian Libraries, Rome Biblioteca Vallicelliana, London the British Library, New York the Morgan Library, and Manchester the John Rylands Library. The event was organized by Dr Tabitha Tuckett, Rare-Books Librarian, University College London, Dr Alexandra Franklin, Co-ordinator, Centre for the Study of the Book, Bodleian Libraries, and by myself. It was co-sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America and by the Italian Cultural Institute in London’s series ‘1321-2021 Dante: A Man For All Seasons’. Short presentations were also given by Tabitha (the edition), myself (the surviving copies), and Gervaise Rosser, Professor of the History of Art, Univ. of Oxford (the illustrations).

The recording of the event, which was watched by over 400 participants, is available here.