Puzzle, Pun, and Visual Morph in Divine Comedy Manuscripts: Beinecke Library MS 428, British Library Lansdowne MS 839, and Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana MS It. IX, 276 (=6902)

Abstract

Written commentary, images, and layout were the most common instructional forms embodied within manuscripts of the Divine Comedy. This paper focuses upon a less-frequently encountered pedagogical technique: "figured text." In certain manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, interpolated text not originating with Dante unexpectedly appears within Dante's verse and is laid out to create a unique design. This design (figured text) takes the form of verse-relevant puzzles and puns whose decoding demands mental effort, a visceral experience that aids memory retention of veiled teachings and influences a reader's reception and experience of the text. In Beinecke Library MS 428 the morphing of an image with such figured text annotates the poem's insistence upon contrapasso as a reflection of Divine Justice, provides a palliative to Dante's glaring departures from Christian dogma, and fosters a blueprint for meditative reading. In British Library Lansdowne MS 839 and Marciana MS It. IX, 276 (=6902) multifaceted textual puns and analogies illustrate the opening verse to Paradiso, embrace the reader within the structure of the poem and, through layout provide an emotional and intellectual pedagogical experience.