Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 1035

Script used by Giovanni Boccaccio: littera textualis

Place of origin: Florence

Date: early 1360s

Material: parchment

Dimensions: 292 x 195 mm (188 x 87 mm)

Leaves: III + 187 + II’

Bibliography:

Boccaccio autore e copista, pp. 268-270 (S. Bertelli); Autografi, p. 52 (Fiorilla-Cursi)

Link to the reproduction: teca.riccardiana.firenze.sbn.it/index.php/it/

Contents:

Boccaccio, Giovanni, Brieve raccoglimento (fols. 1r-3v)

Alighieri, Dante, Commedia (fols. 4r-178r)

Boccaccio, Giovanni, Finis adest longi (fol. 178r)

Alighieri, Dante, 15 Canzoni distese (fols. 179r-187r)

Description:

Dating from the 1360s, this is the second of Giovanni Boccaccio’s three autograph Commedia. In addition to appending the fifteen Canzoni distese to the text of the poem, the Certaldese author produced paratextual material: the Brieve raccoglimento to introduce the Commedia, and the four lines Finis adest longi (carme VIII ed. Velli), which constitute a metrical colophon written in red ink (the same hexameters are also found in ms. Chig. L V 213). It is not recorded in the 1450–1451 inventories of the Santo Spirito library; it probably remained in the hands of Boccaccio’s executors, without reaching the friar Martino da Signa. This is the witness known by the initials Ri in relation to the Commedia, and R₃₅ in the tradition of Dante’s Canzoni. On fol. 187r there is a note of ownership: «Liber Bartholomei ser Benedicti Fortini de Florentia» (this is the son of the Florentine chancellor who succeeded Coluccio Salutati). The drawings on folios 4v, 7r, 10r, 15r, 17r, 20r and 29r, which were previously attributed to Boccaccio, are of a later hand, dating from the fifteenth century, as Lucia Battaglia Ricci has argued.

Boccaccio’s marginal notes are highly significant; almost all of them are of a philological nature, sometimes preceded by a ‘c’ (to be interpreted as ‘credo’ (I believe), indicating a proposed correction to a passage deemed erroneous), by ‘al’. (to be interpreted as ‘alias’ or ‘aliter’ or ‘alii’, indicating a variant accepted following collation with another witness), or preceded by nothing at all, indicating definitive corrections. Here is the list:

fol. 6v - Inf., II 84 de l’alto] ‘de l’ampio’ l.m.

fol. 27v - Inf., XVI 67 dì·sse] c’ ‘dinne’ r.m.

fol. 61v - Purg., II 109 consolarmi] c’ ‘consolare’ r.m.

fol. 69r – Purg. VII 38 et poi] ‘et puoi’ r.m.

fol. 69r - Purg., VII 73 lacca] c’ ‘biacca’ r.m.

fol. 90r - Purg., XV 49 saput’ànno] c’ ‘s’appuntano’ r.m.

fol. 95r - Purg., XVIII 38 buona] al. ‘vera’ r.m.

fol. 100r - Purg., XXI 63 et di volar] c’ ‘et di voler’ r.m.

fol. 112r - Purg., XXVIII 97 di sotto] c’ ‘che sotto’ r.m.

fol. 113r - Purg., XXIX 39 ne chiami] al. ‘vi chiami’ r.m.

fol. 113v - Purg., XXIX 71 il lume] al. ‘il fiume’ r.m.

fol. 115v - Purg., XXX 95 compartire…decto] c’ ‘compatire ad me come se decto’ r.m.

fol. 139v - Par., X 102 se] c’ ‘te’ r.m.

fol. 142r - Par., XII 15 consunse] al. ‘consurse’ r.m.

fol. 147r - Par., XV 30 bis nunquam celi] c’ ‘bis erit celi’ et cetera r.m.

fol. 147r - Par., XV 36 gratia] c’ ‘gloria’ r.m.

fol. 151r - Par., XVII 66 rotta] al. ‘rossa’ r.m.

fol. 151r - Par., XVII 98 s’infuturo] c’ ‘s’infutura’ r.m.

fol. 166r - Par., XXVI 118 Quindi] c’ ‘Quivi’ r.m.

fol. 166v - Par., XXVI 134 Un] c’ ‘i’ r.m.

fol. 170v - Par., XXIX 72 si ritorna] c’ ‘si ricorda’ r.m.

fol. 172v - Par., XXX 92 si veste] c’ ‘si sveste’ r.m.

fol. 177r - Par., XXXIII 36 gli affecti] al. ‘gli effecti’ r.m.

The codex also contains a number of marginal notes added by a later hand (for example on folios 109v, 112r–v, 113r-v, 114r, 115v), which Gabriella Pomaro has attributed to a copyist working with Tedaldo della Casa, whilst Giuseppina Brunetti traces them back to the Bolognese and Romagnolo circle of Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola.