Egerton MS 943

Contents:

ff. 2v-62r: Inferno, with Latin commentary. Incipit, 'In principio istius Comedie videndum est quicquid Auctor intendit declarare in universo';

f. 62v: Chapter list of Purgatorio;

ff. 63r-126r: Purgatorio, with Latin commentary;

ff. 129r-186r: Paradiso, with Latin commentary up to Cantus XI.68 (f. 146v);

ff. 187r-187v: Added verses composed by Jacopo Alighieri, as an introduction to, or compendium of, his father's work, incipit 'O voi che siete dal verace lume'.

Decoration:

261 small miniatures, in colours and gold, throughout.

3 large historiated or inhabited initials with human figures, in colours and gold, at the beginning of the books (ff. 3r, 63r, 129r).

2 full page circular diagrams of the spheres of Hell (f. 2v) and Heaven (f. 128v) and a small circular diagram of the Continents (f. 137v) in red.

Large and smaller decorated foliate initials, many with foliate extensions into the margins, in colours and gold.

2 small initials in blue with red penwork decoration or in red with blue penwork decoration (ff. 42v, 187r).

Paraph marks in plain red or blue.

Illuminations are attributed to the Master of the Antiphonar of Padua (see Bollati, Miniatori Italiani: Secoli IX-XVI (2004), p. 1040).

The subjects of the miniatures and historiated initials are:

Inferno:

f. 3r: Dante sleeping in his bed and his soul leaving his body; Dante meeting the leopard and the lion;

f. 4r: Dante meets a she-wolf with Virgil standing beyond;

f. 4v: Virgil explains to Dante how he has been asked to guide him;

f. 6r: Dante and Virgil walking towards the gates of hell;

f. 6v: Dante and Virgil arrive at the gates of hell;

f. 7r: Dante and Virgil watch wretches in a procession in hell;

f. 7v: The boatman, Charon, comes to ferry souls across the river;

f. 8v: Dante and Virgil meet the unbaptised souls;

f. 9r: Dante and Virgil meeting the four great poets, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Luccan;

f. 9v: The noble castle, with virtuous pagans nearby;

f. 10r: Minos judging three souls;

f. 10v: Punishment of the lustful, who are blown around perpetually in a stormy circle;

f. 11v: Dante and Virgil meeting Paolo and Francesca;

f. 12r: Encountering Cerberus; Virgil gathers clods of earth to throw into his mouth;

f. 12v: Dante and Virgil meeting Ciacco, who prophesies in the rain;

f. 13v: Pluto in the form of a wolf;

f. 14r: The punishment of the avaricious and the greedy, eternally doomed to fight each other;

f. 14v: The punishment of the violent souls who are doomed to fight each other in the slime of the Styx;

f. 15r: Dante and Virgil approach the Great Tower; a boat arrives to ferry them across to Dis;

f. 16r: The arrogant soul is beaten off by his fellows (above); Phlegyas departing as Dante watches Virgil with the devils in the gate of Dis (below);

f. 16v: Virgil, shut out of Dis, sets off with Dante to a side door of the town;

f. 17r: Virgil and Dante look up at three furies stained with blood at the top of a tower;

f. 17v: The heavenly messenger walks across the Styx;

f. 18r: He opens the gate of Dis;

f. 18v: Dante speaks to Farinata in his tomb;

f. 19r: Farinata and another soul talk to Dante from the tomb;

f. 20r: The circular entrance to a lower part of hell;

f. 21v: Dante and Virgil watch the minotaur from below;

f. 22r: Centaurs beside the river of blood;

f. 23r: Chiron escorts Dante and Virgil next to the river of blood and names the souls therein;

f. 23v: Among the thorns, they meet a harpy;

f. 24v: They speak to suicides that have been turned into trees;

f. 25r: Souls condemned to sitting and standing on burning sand;

f. 25v: Souls lying on the sand, pelted by fiery rain;

f. 26r: Virgil tells Dante about Crete;

f. 27r: Brunetto Latini (partially erased) and the Sodomites;

f. 28v: Three illustrious Florentines tormented by fiery rain;

f. 29r: The Florentines, covered in wounds warn Dante;

f. 29v: At a waterfall;

f. 30r: Virgil summons the beast Geryon;

f. 30v: Virgil instructs Geryon, Dante speaks to the Florentine bankers;

f. 31v: Geryon carries Dante and Virgil on his back down to the eighth circle;

f. 32r: Seducers being scourged by devils;

f. 33r: Jason among the seducers;

f. 33v: Flatterers in a pool of filth;

f. 34r: Simoniacs with burning feet upside down in holes;

f. 34v: Pope Clement V punished for simony;

f. 35v: Dante and Virgil watch the soothsayers, with Manto among them;

f. 37r: A bridge over a lake of pitch, with a prefect of Lucca being thrown in by a devil;

f. 38r: Virgil talking to three devils, with Dante hiding behind a bridge;

f. 38v: Virgil speaking to a red devil;

f. 39r: A swindler from Lucca is fished out of the boiling pitch by devils;

f. 40v: Two fighting devils fall into the pitch;

f. 41r: Virgil pulls Dante to safety as they are pursued by devils;

f. 41v: The hypocrites file past Dante and Virgil in golden cloaks;

f. 42r: The hypocrites walk over Caiphas who is on a cross, lying on the ground;

f. 43v: A group of thieves, one of whom, Vanni Fucci, is attacked by a dragon and devoured by flames;

f. 44v: Dante and Virgil meet the centaur Cacus;

f. 45r: A sinner is attacked by a dragon;

f. 45v: The sinner with a wound in his stomach and the dragon;

f. 46v: Dante and Virgil before the flames of the false counsellor;

f. 47r: Dante and Virgil before the flames of Odysseus and Diomedes;

f. 48v: Dante speaking to the false counsellor, Guido de Montefeltro, in the flames;

f. 50r: Dante and Virgil with the troublemakers; Mohammed opens up his body;

f. 50v: Dante talking to Piero da Medicina, who has no ears and nose, with other troublemakers in the background;

f. 51r: Bertrand de Born, with his head in his hand;

f. 51v: Dante's cousin, Geri del Bello, another troublemaker;

f. 52v: The alchemists Griffolino and probably Capocchio (image has been partially effaced);

f. 53v: Dante speaking to Griffolino with other sinners;

f. 54r: Adamo the counterfeiter, swollen with dropsy;

f. 54v: Battle between the counterfeiter Adamo and the Greek spy, Sinon;

f. 55v: The giants Nimrod and Ephialtes;

f. 56v: Virgil guides Dante into the arms of the giant Anteus;

f. 57r: The traitors and their relatives who are in ice up to their necks;

f. 58r: Dante grasps Bocca by the crown of his head;

f. 58v: Dante speaking to Graf Ugolino della Gherardesca from Pisa, who is gnawing on the scalp of his political rival, Archbishop Ruggiero;

f. 60r: The traitors lying in the ice and Dante talking to Alberigho;

f. 61r: Dante and Virgil watch Lucifer who is devouring Cassius, Brutus and Judas with three mouths;

f. 61v: Virgil reaching for Lucifer's legs and above, Dante and Virgil climb out of the mouth of Hell;

Purgatorio

f. 63r: Dante on the deck of a sailing boat, writing in a book; Dante writing at a writing desk; Dante and Virgil greeted by Cato;

f. 64v: Virgil picking reeds to bind around Dante's waist;

f. 65r: A boat bringing the souls over the water to Purgatory, escorted by an angel;

f. 65v: The souls arriving on the bank; Dante greets his childhood friend, Casella, the musician;

f. 67r: Dante and Virgil meeting a group of souls of those who were excommunicated in Ante-Purgatory;

f. 67v: Dante speaking to King Manfred, who shows him his wounds;

f. 68v: Dante and Virgil are seated on a rock, and Virgil explains the position of the sun;

f. 69v: Dante talking to the indolent including the Florentine, Belacqua;

f. 70r: Dante and Virgil with a group of penitents; they meet souls who repented too late;

f. 70v: Two penitents ask Virgil about Dante; they recount their violent death;

f. 71r: Dante talks to Jacopo del Cassero, Podesta or leader of the Commune of Bologna and Buonconte da Montefeltro, the Ghibelline leader;

f. 72r: Dante is accosted by a group of penitents:

f. 72v: Dante and Virgil approach the troubadour Sordello;

f. 73r: Sordello embraces Virgil;

f. 74r: Sordello bows to Virgil, the great poet;

f. 75r: Sordello shows Dante and Virgil the lazy princes in a valley filled with flowers;

f. 75v: Dante, Virgil and Sordello watch the band of lazy princes;

f. 76r: Two angels with swords come down from heaven to guard the valley;

f. 76v: Dante talks to his friend, Nino Visconti; Sordello talks to Virgil while Nino Visconti shows Dante other penitents;

f. 77r: Dante talks to Nino Visconti and Currado Malaspina while the angels chase the serpent away;

f. 77v: Dante dreams of an eagle above him;

f. 78r: The sleeping Dante is grasped by an eagle;

f. 78v: Virgil urges Dante to go on;

f. 79r: Dante and Virgil before the guardian angel of purgatory; the angel traces the seven 'P's on Dante's forehead;

f. 79v: The angel opens the door to purgatory and Dante kneels on the steps;

f. 80r: Dante and Virgil pass a frieze depicting the Annunciation;

f. 80v: A frieze with David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant;

f. 81r: The frieze of Trajan and the widow; Dante and Virgil meet the souls of the proud carrying heavy rocks;

f. 82r: Virgil speaks to the souls of the proud;

f. 82v: Dante bending over to speak to one of the proud souls, perhaps Oderisi of Gubbio, the illuminator;

f. 83v: Dante and Virgil look down at the examples of the sin of pride;

f. 84v: The angel of Humility shows the two travellers the way to the second terrace of Purgatory;

f. 85v: They climb and listen to two spirits in the air telling stories of generosity, the opposite of envy;

f. 86r: Dante and Virgil with the souls of the envious, with their eyes stitched shut reciting the litany;

f. 86v: Dante talks to Sapia from Siena;

f. 87v: Dante talks to Guido del Duca;

f. 88v: Dante climbs the mountain of purification;

f. 89v: Dante and Virgil meet the Angel of Generosity;

f. 90r: Dante's vision of Mary and Joseph in the temple; below, his vision of Peisistratus, the tyrant of Athens, and his wife;

f. 90v: Dante sees a third vision of Stephen, the first martyr;

f. 91r: Dante and Virgil watch the clouds of smoke of the wrathful souls; they pass through the dark clouds;

f. 91v: Dante talks to one of the angry souls;

f. 93r: Dante sees a vision of the mourning Lavinia;

f. 94r, 95r: Dante and Virgil talking about the nature of love;

f. 96r: Dante and Virgil speaking to the Abbot of San Zemo;

f. 96v: Dante sees a disfigured woman in a dream;

f, 97r: An angel shows Dante and Virgil the way through a rocky pass;

f. 97v: The souls of the avaricious and spendthrifts lying on the ground; Dante talks to Pope Adrian V;

f. 99r: Dante talks to Hugh Capet;

f. 100r: Dante hears mysterious thunder and the chanting of the souls;

f. 100v: Statius meets Dante and Virgil;

f. 101v: Statius tries to embrace Virgil;

f. 102r: Statius follows Dante and Virgil;

f. 103v: The three travellers come to the Tree of Life with water pouring onto it;

f. 104r: They meet the gluttons;

f. 104v: Dante speaking to his young friend, Foresi Donati;

f. 105v: Donati shows Dante other gluttons while Statius talks to Virgil;

f. 106r: Dante talking to a glutton, probably Bonagiunta;

f. 107r: The three men watch the gluttons under a fruit tree; they meet the Angel of Abstinence;

f. 108r: Dante talking to Statius;

f. 108v: They meet the souls of the lustful in the fire;

f. 109v: Dante talking to Giudo Guinzelli; the three see the souls kissing in the fire;

f. 110r: Dante talks to the souls;

f. 111r: Dante, talking to one of the lustful, is followed by Statius and Virgil;

f. 111v: The Angel of Chastity shows them the fire;

f. 112r: The three pass through the fire;

f. 112v: Dante sees Lea in a dream;

f. 113r: Leah speaks to Dante in his dream;

f. 113v: Dante, Statius and Virgil reach the Forest of Earthly Paradise;

f. 114r: They meet Matilda;

f. 115r: They see a light shining in the sky;

f. 115v: Seven candles appear ahead;

f. 116r: They see a rainbow with a group of souls dressed in white underneath;

f. 116v: A group of crowned elders in brightly-coloured garments process past them; four horsemen on winged beasts ride by;

f. 117r: They see a cart pulled by a griffon;

f. 117v: In the cart are seven virtuous maidens and seven apostles;

f. 118r: They meet a group of angels singing and scattering flowers; Beatrice waves from a cart in which she is riding with three virtuous women;

f. 119v: Beatrice stands and reprimands Dante for having wasted his talents;

f. 120v: Matilda immerses Dante in the River Lethe;

f. 121r: Matilda takes Dante to the four virtuous women; they lead him to Beatrice;

f. 122r: Angels dance around the Tree of Knowledge;

f. 122v: Dante is sleeping, sitting on the ground with Statius and Matilda nearby; Matilda helps Dante up;

f. 123r: Dante sees Beatrice among the virtuous under the Tree of Knowledge, on which the Roman imperial eagle is perching;

f. 123v: The attack on the cart begins; seven horned heads appear on the cart;

f. 124r: Dante and Statius watch a giant kissing a harlot;

f. 124v: Dante and Statius talk to Beatrice;

f. 125v: Statius, Dante, Beatrice and the seven virtuous women, with Dante asking the name of the Spring of Eunoë;

f. 126r: Dante and Statius passing through the spring of Eunoë to Beatrice;

Paradiso

f. 129r: Christ enthroned, surrounded by angels; Dante praying beneath;

f. 129v: Beatrice looks up at the sun, with Dante behind her;

f. 130r: Beatrice explaining the order of the universe to Dante;

f. 131r: Dante and Beatrice talk beneath the first heaven: the Moon;

f. 132v: Beatrice tells Dante about the souls in the moonlit heaven and five female busts look down on them;

f. 133r: Dante addresses Piccarda Donati in heaven;

f. 134r: Beatrice tutors Dante further;

f. 135v: Dante and Beatrice beneath the second heaven: Mercury;

f. 136v: Beatrice shows Dante the souls of just rulers in the second heaven and seven male busts look down on them;

f. 137v: Dante talking to Emperor Justinian, with two other souls looking on;

f. 139r: Beatrice explains Christian redemption to Dante;

f. 141r: Dante talking to Carl Martell, surrounded by five other souls, in the third heaven: Venus;

f. 142v: Dante and Beatrice discuss the happiness of love, watched by four souls in heaven;

f. 144v: Dante and Beatrice address five busts of Dominican friars in the fourth heaven: Sun;

f. 146r: Dante talks to Thomas Aquinas about the Franciscans, watched by souls of two Dominicans and one Franciscan in heaven;

f. 147v: Beatrice and Dante discuss intellectual happiness, watched by souls of two Dominicans and one Franciscan, perhaps Bonaventure;

f. 149r: Beatrice and Dante discuss wisdom under a starry sky;

f. 149v: Dante talks to Thomas Aquinas, with two other Dominican souls;

f. 151r: Dante addressing the souls of three Dominicans;

f. 151v: Dante turns to Beatrice;

f. 152r: Dante turns towards the heavenly light;

f. 152v: Dante and Beatrice look up at the fifth heaven: Mars, with four male souls surrounding a cross;

f. 153r: Beatrice tells Dante about the nature of heroism, with five male souls looking down from heaven; Dante talks to Cacciaguida, his crusader ancestor;

ff. 154r, 154v, 156v: Dante talks to Cacciaguida, who is with two other male souls;

f. 158r: Dante turns to Beatrice, watched by five male souls beneath the Crusader cross;

f. 159r: Dante and Beatrice look up at ten singing souls in the sixth heaven: Jupiter; they look at the shape of an eagle's head made of the souls of men;

f. 160r: Dante and the eagle's head made up of the souls of just rulers discuss justice;

f. 161v: Dante and Beatrice with the eagle's head, discussing faith and predestination;

f. 163v: Dante and Beatrice looking at the golden stairway to the seventh heaven: Saturn;

f. 164r: Dante talking to Petrus Damianus;

f. 165r: Dante talking to St Benedict, who is with other souls on the golden stairway;

f. 166r: Dante climbs the stairway, and turns back to look at Beatrice;

f. 167r: Dante and Beatrice see the members of the triumphant Church;

f. 168r: They look at the souls in the eighth heaven: the fixed stars; the souls look up to heaven;

f. 169r: Dante and Beatrice look up at St Peter and three other saints;

f. 170r: Peter questions Dante about his faith;

f. 170v: Beatrice addresses the five saints in heaven;

f. 171v: Dante is questioned by St James, who is with St John in heaven;

f. 172r: Dante and Beatrice look up to heaven;

f. 173r. Dante talks to Adam, who is with Peter and two other saints in heaven;

ff. 174r, 174v: Dante and Beatrice look up at Peter and three other saints in the ninth heaven, Primum Mobile;

f. 175r: Dante listens to Beatrice's discourse;

f. 176r: Dante and Beatrice look up at a shining light made of up of concentric circles, representing the nine heavenly orders;

f. 176v: Beatrice explains the order to Dante;

f. 177v: Dante listens to Beatrice's explanation;

f. 179v: Dante and Beatrice look up at the sources of pure light in heaven;

f. 181r: They see the Rose of Heaven, worshipped by five angels;

f. 181v: Bernard of Clairvaux shows Dante the Rose of Heaven and Beatrice's place among the blessed;

f. 182r: Bernard shows Dante the Virgin Mary who is looking at Beatrice, with four saints surrounding them;

f. 183v: Dante and Bernard watch the angel of the Annunciation talking to Mary, with Beatrice and three saints watching;

f. 184v: Dante and Bernard pray to Mary;

f. 185r: Dante and Bernard, with Beatrice and the saints, pray to Mary and Christ above;

f. 186r: Dante prays to Christ in the concentric circles of heaven.