Dante Alighieri. Commedia. A Digital Edition
Date
2021-11-09
Authors
Robinson, Peter M. W.
Shaw, Prue
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Inkless Editions, Saskatoon; Fondazione Ezio Franceschini, Florence
ORCID
Type
Other
Degree Level
Abstract
This web site contains high-resolution full colour digital images and highly-detailed transcriptions of seven key early manuscripts of Dante’s Commedia – some of the most precious and beautiful surviving copies of the poem. It contains the text of two landmark print editions, those of Giorgio Petrocchi (1966) and Federico Sanguineti (2001). It offers a full word-by-word collation of the text, showing all variants at every word, viewable in either the original manuscript spelling or in a standardised form.
Sophisticated software allows easy magnification and movement around the images. A drop-down menu at the right of the header allows the user to choose a particular manuscript; cantica-canto-line choices allow easy movement around the text. A metrical analysis of each line can be accessed from the collation. Specialized search tools enable new ways of exploring the relations between the versions: the unique VBase feature offers complex searches for variants by their distribution in the manuscripts.
A comprehensive introduction by the editor explains the methodology of the transcriptions, and gives detailed transcription notes, as well as descriptions, for each manuscript. It analyses the interrelationships between the manuscripts, testing the editorial hypothesis of manuscript relations which underlies the Sanguineti edition, for whom these seven manuscripts were both ‘necessary and sufficient’ to produce a scholarly critical edition of the poem. As well as providing all the primary evidence for scholars wishing to explore the Sanguineti edition and its relationship to the Petrocchi edition, and a detailed analysis of that evidence, the web site will be a valuable teaching tool for palaeographers, codicologists and textual critics.
A new Preface (2021) explains how this second edition of the web site stands in relation to the first edition (2010). The first edition remains online at http://www.sd-editions.com/AnaAdditional/commediaonline/home.html as a historical record of a ground-breaking early digital edition of a medieval text.
Description
Open access
Keywords
Dante, Commedia, digital edition, stemmatic analysis
Citation
Dante Alighieri. Commedia. A Digital Edition. Edited by Prue Shaw. Edition Realization, Peter Robinson. Second Edition. Inkless Editions, Saskatoon; Fondazione Ezio Franceschini, Florence.2022. https://www.dantecommedia.it