25 January 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

700 Years After Dante’s Death, His Handwritten Notes Are Discovered

Dante Alighieri, an Italian poet, and scholar are best known for his masterwork La Commedia (also known as The Divine Comedy in English), which is widely regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces in universal literature. Dante is Italy’s national poet, the author of the country’s most important literary work, and the father of modern Italian.

Dante was born in Florence in 1265 and was a key figure in the development of Italian literature, but no one has seen a sample of his handwriting for centuries.

After generations of no one seeing his penmanship, a Florence-based researcher claims to have discovered a sample of his handwritten work.

Julia Bolton Holloway, an elderly British scholar, feels it is an illustration of the renowned writer’s talent. Before becoming a nun and administering the English cemetery in Florence, Holloway taught Medieval Studies at Princeton University in New Jersey. Her findings have now been published in a book by Tuscany’s regional government.

Statue of Dante in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Enrico Pazzi, 1865
Statue of Dante in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Enrico Pazzi, 1865. Photo: Jörg Bittner (Unna)

According to a report published in The Times, these samples were found hidden in two libraries in Florence and the Vatican. They are thought to have been written during Dante’s time as a student and scholar in Florence at the end of the 13th century.

Julia Bolton Holloway said the writing was ‘schoolboy-like’ but in excellent Tuscan, which provided the blueprint for Italian and covers ideas that show up in Divine Comedy.

The writings also give some insight into his opus, the Divine Comedy, including concepts about an ethical government that appear later in the book.

The Divine Comedy is a lengthy narrative poem in Italian divided into three sections – Inferno, Purgatario, and Paradiso – that takes the situation of the soul after death, offering a vision of divine justice meted out as deserved punishment or reward. It focuses on Dante’s journeys through the three worlds listed above, alluding to the soul’s journey to God in a metaphorical manner.

A medieval scholar working in Florence found handwritten writings thought to have been written by Dante in libraries around Italy.
A medieval scholar working in Florence found handwritten writings thought to have been written by Dante in libraries around Italy. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana

Despite its spiritual and philosophical content, the Divine Comedy is nevertheless studied in depth by Italian schoolchildren today.

Bolton Holloway has spent five decades studying Latino, also known as Latini or Latinus, and says he appears in Divine Comedy in a section of hell reserved for sodomites.

In reality, a number of figures from Dante’s Inferno, the first section of the Divine Comedy, are referenced in papers written in Italian by Latini. This is owing to Dante and Latini’s loving and intellectual connection, since the latter functioned as Dante’s guardian when his father died, according to The Daily Mail.

According to Holloway, the notes she has discovered “are the only ones written in the so-called  cancelleresca script, which Dante was likely taught by his father and are the only ones on cheap parchment, which makes sense given Dante was poorer than his fellow pupils.”

There have been no discoveries of Dante’s own original, handwritten version of the Divine Comedy to date. Nevertheless, “Leonardo Bruni, a later  Renaissance scholar who saw Dante’s handwriting described it as being similar to the manuscripts I have found,” says Ms. Holloway.

Julia Bolton Holloway’s incredible discovery appears to be backed up by a growing body of data. Two of the manuscripts include a hand-drawn square placed on a circle, indicating that they were written in Dante’s own hand. In his Divine Comedy, Dante utilized the notion of juxtaposition to depict God, and it is still used in popular culture today.

Related Articles

Dingoes were regarded as “almost human” in pre-colonial Australia

21 October 2023

21 October 2023

When it comes to Australia’s wild dingoes, the phrase “a dog is a man’s best friend” takes on new meaning....

Collectors In The Prehistoric World Recycled Old Stone Tools To Preserve The Memory Of Their Ancestors

16 March 2022

16 March 2022

A first-of-its-kind study at Tel Aviv University asks what drove prehistoric humans to collect and recycle flint tools that had...

Birkleyn Caves is “the Place Where The World Ends”

18 January 2025

18 January 2025

The Birkleyn Caves were known as “the place where the world ends” and as “the place where the water of...

Polish archaeologists discover papyruses containing a list of Roman centurions at Berenike

23 May 2024

23 May 2024

Papyruses with lists of Roman centurions stationed in Egypt were found by Polish archaeologists in Berenike. These unique documents were...

Medieval Ring with a Skull Emblem Found in Wales and The Gold Coins are Declared Treasure

11 April 2021

11 April 2021

Located in wales nine treasure finds dating from the medieval and post-medieval periods have been declared treasure. Metal detectors in...

Ruins of China’s earliest state academy found in east China

21 February 2022

21 February 2022

The ruins of ancient China‘s first government-run institution of higher learning, built in 374 BC, have been discovered in the...

1300-year-old baby footprints found in excavations at the ancient city of Assos in western Turkey

3 September 2021

3 September 2021

1300 years ago, a baby stepped on baked bricks prepared to make a bread baking oven. The baby was probably...

1.5 tons of bronze coins found in east China

19 December 2022

19 December 2022

An ancient coin hoard containing 1.5 tonnes of coins from the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties has been discovered...

The ‘extraordinary’ Roman mosaic depicting scenes from Homer’s Iliad unearthed in a Rutland farmer’s field is the first of its kind in England

25 November 2021

25 November 2021

The 1,500-year-old mosaic discovered by a farmer was considered Britain’s “most exciting” Roman find. The artwork was discovered on private...

Neanderthals of the North

13 May 2022

13 May 2022

Were Neanderthals really as well adapted to life in the cold as previously assumed, or did they prefer more temperate...

An Ancient Large Clay Vessel “Hum” 1.75 Meters High Unearthed in Kyrgyzstan

9 March 2024

9 March 2024

During recent archaeological excavations in the town of Uzgen in the Osh province of Kyrgyzstan, a 1.75-meter-high clay vessel known...

Oman discovers fort dating back to the 5th century in North Al Batinah

12 March 2022

12 March 2022

A fort dating back to the 5th century has been discovered at Oman’s Al Fulaij archaeological site in North Al...

Italian Research Team May Have Found Plato’s Burial Site in Athens

23 April 2024

23 April 2024

Graziano Ranocchia, a papyrologist at the University of Pisa, said he found Plato’s exact burial place based on papyri findings...

An archaeological dig at Govan Old Churchyard revealed a remarkable new find: an early medieval ‘Govan Warrior’ stone

19 September 2023

19 September 2023

An archaeological excavation in the churchyard at Govan Old Parish Church in Glasgow, a port city on the River Clyde...

The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile

16 August 2021

16 August 2021

The Babylonian captivity or exile was an era in ancient Israel’s history. That exile began with a two-stage expulsion in...