Miniature come glosse. I centauri nell’esegesi e nelle antiche carte miniate della Commedia, in «L’Alighieri», 62, 2023, pp. 83-103

This paper aims to analyse the earliest figurative translation of the Centaurs, guardians of the seventh circle of Hell in Inf. XII, in the illuminated manuscripts of Dante’s Commedia, in order to highlight the tight connection between this iconography and the images illustrating Caco (Inf. XXV, 17-33). The research, focusing in particular on the visual representations belonging to a minority figurative trend, shared by only four manuscripts, underlines
the affiliation of these witnesses with a very early phase of the illuminated tradition of the Commedia and shows the close connection between the peculiar iconography adopted and a specific ancient corpus of Dantean glosses.