Special Collections at Hill Memorial Library has acquired an early edition of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” from an antique book dealer last month, and students will now have the chance to explore the rare text free of charge.
Michael Taylor, assistant curator of books in Special Collections, said the book provides insight for those studying art, religion and Italian history.
The “Divine Comedy,” written by Dante between 1308 and 1321, is an epic poem detailing the afterlife’s stages of Hell, purgatory and paradise.
The first of the poem’s three canticas is the popular “Inferno,” in which the poet Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell.
Special Collections’ edition of the “Divine Comedy” was published in 1578 following the advent of the printing press. It is the first edition with a bird’s-eye illustration of Dante’s Hell.
Because the library’s printed edition is not one of the original, handwritten manuscripts of the “Divine Comedy,” Taylor said the text also is important in understanding the transfer of knowledge over time.
The “Divine Comedy” is now one of 120,000 books the library stores in a
climate-controlled environment.
“We don’t keep stuff here to keep you away,” Taylor said. “We keep it here to make sure the stuff is available for, in theory, 100 years from now.”
Taylor said texts with historical significance that require special care can be found in Special Collections rather than Middleton Library.
Hill Memorial Library’s extensive collection of manuscripts requires extra maintenance, Taylor said.
“They’re individual letters, but there’s only one in the world. So if that was ever lost or damaged, we wouldn’t be able to replace it,” Taylor said. “There’s no other copy out there to get.”