• Benedetto Croce
• Erich Auerbach
• Gianfranco Contini
• Millard Meiss
• Peter Brieger
• Charles Singleton
• history of dante studies
• history of literary criticism
• storia della critica
• storia della critica dantesca
• divine comedy
• divina commedia
• manoscritti miniati
• illuminated manuscripts
• filologia e critica dantesca
• dante studies

My research aims to offer a new bibliographical and critical path throughout the last Century of research about the early illustration of the Divine Comedy. First, I inventoried and analyzed a digital library of references, including a wide range of studies, from the last decades of the XIXth Century until today. As a result, I identified two main phases in the critical reception of early illustrations. In the first phase (1. Fino al 1969) emerges a juxtaposition between the supposed inadequateness of the early illustrators and Dante's extraordinary artistry. In the second phase (2. Dal 1969 ad oggi), early illustrations are gradually enhanced for their exegetic value and therefore studied as pictorial commentaries.
The thesis is, therefore, articulated into three parts. The first part presents the criteria and method of inventory; the second part contains the critical essay. Here, the development of the studies on the illuminated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy connects with some crucial points in the history of Dante Studies. Lastly, the third section presents the bibliographical inventory, organised chronologically and thematically.