Egerton MS 3017

DANTE, Divina Commedia; the MS. numbered by Colomb de Batines (Bibl. Dantesca, ii, p. 99) 183 and by E. Moore (Contr. to the Textual Crit. of the Divina Commedia, p. 546), V². There are no headings ; spaces are left at the beginning of each canto for an illuminated initial, which has never been added, the required letter being inserted in the margin. At the end is the colophon " Explicit paradiso e purghatorio e ninferno di Dante Alleghieri di Firezze, dio Gratia." The cantos are numbered, and the earlier ones of the Inferno have, in the top margin, Latin notes (sometimes lost by the cutting of the leaves), in a different hand, specifying the class of sinners with which the canto deals. The Commedia is followed (f. 103), without title, by the " Capitolo " of Jacopo Alighieri (edited from two other MSS. by Lord Vernon, Chiose alla Cantica dell' Inferno, 1848, pp. 115-122; see also L. Rocca, Di alcuni commenti della D. C. pp. 33-38) ; beg. "O uoi che siete dal uerace lume." There are several other copies in the Department. Paper (ff. iii, iv old vellum covers) ; ff. iv + 104. 12 1/4 in. x 9 1/4 in. Sec. fol. " Lo giorno." First half of XIV cent. (the water-marks or similar ones occur almost exclusively in documents before 1350). Double columns of 36 (in the later pages 39 or 42) lines. Gatherings of 12 leaves (viii⁸), With catchwords (those in vii and viii written in a circle). On f. 104 b are the following entries in various hands:— A (15th-16th cent.), " Questo dante fatto ani 100 fa per mano del auolo del padre del padre di Domenico ueccio de Rinuccini " ; B (16th cent.), " Questo dante e fatto anni 100 fa per mano di Oratio Rinuccini " (over the words " Di sua mano " by A) ; C (16th- 17th cent.), " Non gle ne credete per che gle vn bvgiardo e lo (?) dice in sei mod"; A,

(i) " Se questo libro assorta si perdessi; O capiassi alle man' di persona ; che del mio nome nulla non sapessi, Legga quel uerso che disotto suona; e se assorta legger non sapesse ; faccalo legger da qualche persona; che gli dira del nome e del casato; ORAZIO (marginal correction from Giulio ? Rinuccini son chiamato ;

(ii) "O tu che mi leggi; fa che non mi chieggi; perche di chi io sono; non mi ebbe gia in dono; donato esser non uoglio; rubato esser non soglio; e se piacessi ad alcuno; uada a comperar se ne uno."

A Domenico occurs in the Rinuccini pedigree given by G. Aiazzi, Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuccini,, 1840, pp. 108-109, as born 1475 and a Domenico Francesco born 1435, but no Orazio or Giulio is there recorded. The old vellum covers contain erased portions of a legal register (13th-14th cent.) in which occur the names dom. Marchus Iustinianus, doni. Bolgharellus iudex, Baldus notarius de Certaldo and Tinghus, and the date 1264. Modern binding of bevelled wooden boards, leather-backed. ln 1846 (C. de Batines, 1.c.) MS. 118 in the library of the Marchese Pier Francesco Rinuccini (d. 1847), whose MS. collection was bought by the Tuscan Government (A. von Reumont, Beiträge zur Ital. Gesch., v, p. 395). Bookplate (larger than in 3011) of [George John] W[arren] V[ernon. 5th Baron Vernon] (Vernon MS. 2242 ; sale-cat., 11 June, 1918, lot 172).