The Dante Urbinate, held at the Vatican Apostolic Library under the shelfmark Urbinate Latino 365, is considered one of the most important illustrated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy. Commissioned by Federico da Montefeltro for his own library, the codex translates the grandeur of Dante’s poem into a monumental work on parchment, enriched by an elaborate array of miniatures, borders and gilding.
To mark the seven-hundredth anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, the publishing house Franco Cosimo Panini produced a facsimile edition in collaboration with the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani. Published in 2021 in a limited edition of 590 numbered copies, the edition reproduces all 297 folios of the manuscript in full.
The project grew out of an extensive process of analyzing the original, capturing and processing images, conducting print tests and selecting materials. Each stage was calibrated to reproduce with maximum fidelity the variety of the parchment and the brilliance of the colors in the miniatures, as well as the different ways in which gold was applied throughout the codex, either as gold leaf or powder.
The precision of the reproduction technologies is complemented by the work of Italian artisan workshops. The binding was created using techniques rooted in historical bookmaking traditions, involving specialists in metalworking, engraving and the manual construction of the volume. The result is a philologically faithful replica of the original, reproducing not only its images, but also its weight, format, texture and the physical experience of consulting it.
The Dante Urbinate is part of the The Impossible Library series, launched by Franco Cosimo Panini Editore in 1995 with the reproduction of the Borso d’Este Bible. The series was created to make manuscripts accessible once again when their rarity, fragility and conservation requirements mean that the originals can be consulted only in exceptional circumstances. Each facsimile combines sophisticated image-processing technologies with the expertise of Italian craftsmanship, following a method developed by the publishing house over more than thirty years.
This experience is one of the foundations of Gruppo Panini Cultura. The same method – studying the original, documenting it with precision and transforming the acquired data into a lasting resource – continues today in major projects dedicated to the preservation and digital enhancement of cultural heritage.
