Literary Spread of the Divine Comedy

Timeline

1. 1371–1374Florence · TuscanyScribal workshops and private collectors in Florence, Dante's hometown, copied the complete Divine Comedy and single-canto manuscripts, illustrated with the circles of Hell and the mountain of Purgatory. Citizens regarded Dante as a symbol of the city's culture, and the Florentine political figures and landmarks in the poem were still recognized and discussed by readers in the 1370s.
2. 1374–1377Bologna · Emilia-RomagnaAnnotated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy appeared at scholarly centers such as the University of Bologna, where scholars glossed allusions, philosophy, and theological meanings in Latin or Italian. The university copying network carried the poem beyond its Florentine context into a shared literary-intellectual text of the Italian peninsula.
3. 1377–1380Venice–Padua · VenetoIn the late 1370s, richly decorated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy appeared in Venice, Padua, and elsewhere, eagerly collected by noble and ecclesiastical libraries. Manuscript transmission spread Dante's poetry through the Adriatic trade sphere, laying the readership foundation for Petrarch and Boccaccio to establish Dante's canonical status at the end of the fourteenth century.