A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Canon. Misc. 449

Summary Catalogue no.: 19925

Commentaries on Dante, etc.; Italy, late 14th or early 15th century (partly 1394?)

Contents

1. (fols. 1r-3r)
Alberico da Rosciate, Proemio
Incipit: Liber iste divitur in tres partes principales, quarum prima appellatur Infernus et continet capitula 34
Incipit: (fol. 2r) ⟨A⟩d intelligentiam presentis chomedie secundum quod expositores in scientiis perutuntur quatuor sunt notanda
Language(s): Latin
2. (fol. 3r-v)
Graziolo Bambaglioli, Proemio
Incipit: ⟨E⟩tsi celestis et increati principis
Language(s): Latin
3. (fols.3v-4v)
Bosone da Gubbio, Capitolo on the Commedia
Language(s): Latin
4. (fols.4v-5v)
Jacopo Alighieri , Divisione
Language(s): Latin
5. (fols.6r-91v)
Jacopo della Lana, Commentary on Dante, Inferno (translation by Guglielmo de Bernardis, 1349)
Incipit: Nel meço del camin, etc. In primis duobus capitulis presentis chomedie auctor prohemizat et ostendit dispositionem
Explicit: Hic finit tractatus Inferni Dantis Adhigherii cum glosa secondum Jacobum de la Lana, quam siquidem glosam ego don Guilliellmus de Bernardis reduxi de lingua vulagari in literratam prout superius continetur, curente anno Domini m.ccc.xlviiij. indictione secunda
Final rubric: Est liber expletus sum Christi munere letus, |Grates sint Danti, devotio magna paranti, |Propter opus scriptum Yhesum laudo benedictum. |Amen
Language(s): Latin
6. (fols.92r-110v)
Commentary on the Purgatorio ('Anonymous Lombardus')

Misbound: fols. 101-110 should precede fols. 92-100.

Anonymous Latin commentary on Dante's Commedia : reconstructed text, ed. Vincenzo Cioffari (Spoleto, 1989)

(fols. 92r-100r; 100v blank)

Purg. XX-XXXIII

Explicit: sicut dictum est in precedenti 32 capitulo per plantam intelligitur lignum vite et obedientie, que planta per inobedentiam primi parentis decoriata fuit
(fols. 101r-110r)

Purg. I-XIX

Incipit: Notandum est quod licet sequentes chomedie dicantur tractare de purgatorio et contentis in ipso
Incipit: ⟨P⟩er corer miglio […] Vult dicere auctor quod a divino intendit tractare de melliori et altiora (sic) materia
Language(s): Latin
7. (fols.111r-191v)
Jacopo della Lana, Commentary on Dante, Paradiso (translation by Albericus de Rosate)
Incipit: O \La/ gloria etc. Gloria et divitie in domo eius
Incipit: (fol. 113v) La gloria de coluy […] Che tuto moue Iste primus motor est Deus, qui totum movet
Explicit: Explicit liber comedie Danti Alligerii de Florentia per eum editus sub anno Dominice Incarnationis m.ccc. de mense Marcii, Sol in ariete, Luna nova in libra. Qui obiit in civitate Ravene, die festo sancte Crucis de mense Septembri, anni Dominice Incarnationis mccc.xxi, cujus anima in rosa Paradissi, de qua cum tanto affectu loquutus est collocetur
Final rubric: Iocredo; Hoc commentum totius hujus chomedie composuit quidam Jacobi de la Lana \magister Benvenutus(?)/ Bononiensis licentiatus in artibus et theologia, fillius fratris Filipi de la Lana, ordinis Gaudenntii, quod fecit in sermone vulgari Tusco, et quia talle ydioma non erit omnibus notum, ideo ad utilitatem volentium studere in ipsa chomedia transtuli de vulgari Tuscho in gramaticam literaturam ego Albricus de Roxata, dictus in utroque jure peritus Pergamensis; si autem defectus aliquis foret in hujusmodi translatione maxime in astrologicis demonstrationibus vel algorismo veniam peto, meque et aliqualiter excusent deffectus exempli et ignorantia dictarum scientiarum; Ipse enim dominus Jacobus commentator in fine sui operis subicit, et prudenter et bene subicit, quecumque scripsit in ipso correptioni sancte ecclesie Romane catolice, approbans omnia que cum ipsa ecclesia concordant, et reprobans omnia, que contra determinationem ejusdem sancte ecclesie apparent, volens tallia haberi debere pro non dictis neo scriptis tanquam bonus et catholicus Christianus, et ideo subdit. Jocredo

Fols. 127r-128v duplicate fols. 125r-126v.

Language(s): Latin
8. (fol. 192r-v)

Verses in Italian and Latin (slightly later addition on originally blank leaf)

Franco Sacchetti
Incipit: Fugga chi sa dove non regni morte
Explicit: O Pompeio Otauiano

Franco Sacchetti, Il libro delle rime,ed. A. Chiari (1936), no. CLXIX, lines 1-40

Language(s): Italian
Antonio da Ferrara
Incipit: (fol. 192r) Acc co che parte sieno compiute Le lode chetifo compiato amaro
Final rubric: M.ccc fi questo proposto Quaranta apresso cum gracia de siança A xx, di domeniga d'Agosto M.Antonio de Ferara
Incipit: O sacro imperio santo
(fol. 192v)
Incipit: Si legger Dante mai caso machagia
Explicit: Et atradito ognum che lui speraua Et perdinari a fatto Ytalia schiaua
Language(s): Italian

Proverbial verses

Incipit: Vir videas quod tu iubeas dum magnus haberis Et timeas neforte ruas dum stare videris Conspitias ne despitias dum ledere queris Dat varias furtuna vices non ergo mireris
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF), a few oblong holes, tears and pest holes
Extent: i + 192 + i leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 365 × 250 mm.
Foliation: 1-192, 18th-century, in lower central margin (typical of Soranzo manuscripts); i, 1-193 in modern pencil.

Collation

1(10)-9(10) (fols. 1-90), 10(2-1, a bifolium with second leaf cancelled) (fol. 91); 11(10-1, 10 cancelled) (fols. 92-100); 12(10) (fols. 100-110), 13(10)-14(10) (fols. 111-130); 15(10)-20(10) (fols. 131-190), 21(2) (fols. 191-2). CatchwordsLeaf signatures.

Layout

Scribe 1: typically 1 col. of c. 46-48 lines, ruled space c. 260-75 × 170 mm.

Scribe 2: typically 1 col. of 36 lines, ruled space c. 280 × 170-5 mm.

Fols. 3v-5v in 2 cols.

Hand(s)

Two cursive hands: (1) fols. 1-110, 131-191; (2) fols. 111r-130v, gatherings 12-13. Fol. 192r-v by a third hand.

Decoration

Historiated initials: fol. 111r (3 line), Christ; fol. 117r (3 line) saint with book; fol. 4v, head in profile.

Initials in red ink with purple flourishing, sometimes with figurative elements (e.g. fols. 57r, 58v, 110r). Initials for each canto, including for Inferno and Paradiso to the introductions of each canto. The verses placed next to the words of the commentary are underlined in red ink, paraphs in red ink.

Diagrams and spaces for diagrams, fols. 30v, 64v, 90r, 175v, 176v, 184v

Finely executed manicule, fol. 1v,

Spaces for initials, fols. 2r, 3r, 6r, 101r.

Additions: Occasional annotations, maniculae; canto numbers added in a later hand.

Binding

Sewn on four thongs, plain parchment over pasteboard. Marbled paper endleaves. On fol. i verso there are traces of writing in a similar script to the one of the first folio; they are not the result of transfer of undried ink as the lines do not correspond.

History

Origin: 14th century, late, or 15th century, beginning (perhaps in part 1394?); fols. 111-130 slightly later ; Italy

Provenance and Acquisition

Fol. 58v: ‘nunc […] 1394 […] dici potest 94 annos fore completos quibus inceptum fuit hoc opus’, with '94' seemingly over erasure in both cases, perhaps a scribal alteration giving the date of copying, since the date of the text itself is 1349.

Jacopo Soranzo, his MS. 537 in folio.

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Record Sources

Description by Irina Boeru, Sept. 2022. Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ pars tertia codices Græcos et Latinos Canonicianos complectens, Quarto Catalogues III, 1854)

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)

Last Substantive Revision

2022-09: Description revised for publication on Digital Bodleian.