10.6092/issn.1973-9494/1395
application/pdf
1973-9494
1395
en
Raffaele Savigni
Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”
Text.Serial.Journal
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/
8
Articles
2009-04-02
2008-04-17
2015-11-02
49-63
CSCH
Raffaele Savigni
2008
10.6092/issn.1973-9494/1395
49
1973-9494
en
63
Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/article/download/1395/768
8
D
     IAGNOSIS AND DIGITIZATION
     OF DANTESQUE CODE “PHILLIPPS 9589”

Salvatore Lorusso, Andrea Natali, Chiara Matteucci, Raffaele Savigni
Dipartimento di Storie e Metodi per la Conservazione dei Beni Culturali
Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna (sede di Ravenna)




1. Introduction

   The object of this case of study is the research carried out by the Dipartimento di
Storie e Metodi per la Conservazione dei Beni Culturali Alma Mater Studiorum Università
di Bologna (sede di Ravenna), according to the terms of collaboration with the Dantesque
Centre of the “Frati Minori Conventuali” in Ravenna1, on the Dantesque Code catalogued
at the Centre Library as Manoscritto n. 2.
   The manuscript is known to the international scientific community with the acronym
Phillipps 9589 and its importance lies in being the unique Dantesque palimpsest code
and in conserving, in the scriptio superior, one of the oldest witnesses in Dante’s
Commedia manuscript tradition, named a tradition, the so-called “old vulgata” (fig. 1).
   The research, developed in several stages, with the contributions of experts with dif-
ferent skills in the historical-philological and technical fields, intended to take into consid-
eration some peculiar aspects as:



                                                                                                    Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage, 8/2008




  Figure 1. Code Dante Phillipps 9589.
                                                                                                   49
                                                                                    •   valuation of the state of conservation;
                                                                                    •   characterization of materials;
                                                                                    •   valuation of the conservation environment;
                                                                                    •   improvement of the Dantesque text legibility;
                                                                                    •   the palimpsest reading and dating;
                                                                                    •   code digitization in order to make it available on the intranet and the Internet.
                                                                                        In particular this writing means to refer to the employment of non-destructive testing
                                                                                    techniques to find out when the code was compiled.
                                                                                        As it is well known, no Dante’s autograph survived and so it does not exist an origi-
                                                                                    nal manuscript of the Commedia. In return Dante’s masterpiece was widely distributed: a
                                                                                    few years after his death, copies of the Commedia spread through Italy. Nearly 800 man-
                                                                                    uscripts have come to us. Such a circulation was made possible by a production of codes
                                                                                    drafted by many copyists, some of them were famous, such as Giovanni Boccaccio, oth-
S. Lorusso et al. - Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”




                                                                                    ers were simple labourers in workshops producing manuscripts in the XIV and the XV
                                                                                    century. This, while expediting the knowledge of Dante’s work, yet it led inevitably to a
                                                                                    rapid corruption of the text, preventing to go back to the original version. Doing a palaeo-
                                                                                    graphic investigation to get to a text as close as possible, in chronological terms, to the
                                                                                    Dantesque original, involves an increase in the historic-philological, as well as econom-
                                                                                    ic, as far as it concerns here, value of the manuscript.
                                                                                        In this case, the difficulties in carrying out a palaeographic inspection were deter-
                                                                                    mined by the bad state of conservation, in some parts, of the Dantesque text and by the
                                                                                    non-legibility, under normal conditions, of the palimpsest.
                                                                                        Before describing the testing relating to the use of diagnostic techniques to improve the
                                                                                                                             text legibility and allow the reading and the dating
                                                                                                                             of the palimpsest, we report first, briefly, the results
                                                                                                                             of the investigations carried out on the code, refer-
                                                                                                                             ring to other texts for what it concerns the follow-
                                                                                                                             ing diagnostic instruments features and use [1-4].


                                                                                                                             2. Historic anamnesis

                                                                                                                                  The only reliable historical data about the
                                                                                                                             manuscript are available from the XVIII century,
                                                                                                                             when the Comedy’s copy was purchased by
                                                                                                                             Fredrick North, fifth Earl of Guilford (London
                                                                                    Figure 2. Ex-library with the heraldic
                                                                                    emblem of the family Guilford.           1766-Corfu 1827).

                                                          50
    At the Earl’s death, in 1827, his collec-
tion was auctioned and the code was sold
by the lot (currently still visible on ex-library)
7/19/G (seventh batch, composed of nine-
teen manuscripts) in 1830, and it became
part of Sir Thomas Phillipps’s library (fig. 3).
    After T. Phillipps’s death, occurred in
                                                     Figure 3. Particular of the binding’s spine
1938, the code was sold more than once               where is present the number 9589
until it was bought in 1950 by a collector
from Milan and it eventually came to the Dantesque Centre in 1983.
    In the research done by Father G. Zanotti (father G. ZANOTTI, La biblioteca del
«Centro Dantesco» in Ravenna. Dai manoscritti alle edizioni del Settecento, Ravenna,
                                                            Longo Editore, p. 44), it is assumed,
                                                            in lack of reliable sources, that the
                                                            code was made in Tuscany in the
                                                            second half of the XIV century, and
                                                            that the client was the Aldobrandini-
                                                            Bellincioni family, whose emblem is
                                                            shown in the miniature on the verso
                                                            of the first carta (fig. 4). The study
                                                            points out that the obvious influ-
                                                            ences of the Renaissance graph-
                                                            ics, found mainly in the putti, cast
Figure 4. Hell, c.1 r., emblem ascribed to the fam-
ily-Bellincioni Aldobrandini.                               doubts on dating this emblem
                                                            before the XV century.                   Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage


3. Evaluation of the state of conservation

    The visual investigation on the manuscript underlined the dissimilarities among the
Inferno (fig. 5) and the Paradise (fig. 6) Canticae and the Purgatory (fig. 7) Cantica, both
in a palaeographic point of view (different handwriting) and in terms of writing support,
since the parchment used for the Purgatory does not show scriptio inferior and is much
whiter and more intact than the other two Canticae.
    There are, on the other hand, analogies among filigreed initial letters in the three
Canticae (fig. 8) which are very similar; as well as the simple letters, in alternate red and
blue inks, seem to be by the same workmanship in the whole work [5-19].

                                                                                                     51
                                                                                    Figure 5. Code Dante
                                                                                    Phillipps 9589, pages of Hell.
S. Lorusso et al. - Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”




                                                                                    Figure 6. Code Dante
                                                                                    Phillipps 9589, pages of
                                                                                    Paradise.




                                                                                    Figure 7. Code Dante
                                                                                    Phillipps 9589, pages of
                                                                                    Purgatory.
                                                                 52
Figure 8. Filigreed initial letters in the Hell Cantica (a) and in the (b) Purgatory Cantica.


4. Analytic-diagnostic investigations

   The use of image-analysis video microscope allowed, thanks to the possibility to
greatly enlarge the details, to acquire information about the artefact, not only concerning
its state of conservation, but also its historical and technical aspects.
   The employment, then, of the image-analysis software has been remarkably helpful
to detect some important details related to degradation phenomena and, by making
appropriate measures, it is a non-destructive, non-intrusive, applicable in situ method to
keep under a steady surveillance the manuscript’s state of conservation.
   The multispectral investigation technique was – as we will discuss in detail later on –
strongly supportive to the reading and the interpretation of the scriptio inferior.

                                                                                                      Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
   The fluorescence spectroscopy of X-ray allowed the identification of chemical ele-
ments whose presence, interpreted through the information gathered from historical and
artistic sources, led to the individuation of pigments, inks, gilt types, as well as the chem-
ical characterization of parchment.
   Colorimetric investigations allowed to distinguish chromatic changes due to degrada-
tion phenomena, as well as to quantify the differences in colour on the various Canticae’s
supports, creating documentation to be considered as reference for the evaluation of
changes over time.
   As to the microbiological analysis results, they showed that the biological develop-
ment, very low and in some cases absent, is not cause of the parchment’s damage at the
moment. Nevertheless tests on microorganisms will have to be repeated in the future in
order to monitor any possible biological development over time [20-27].
                                                                                                 53
                                                                                    5. Environmental monitoring

                                                                                       As part of the study system/artefact-environment, in order to evaluate whether the
                                                                                    thermo-hygrometric conditions conform to the regulations regarding the conservation of
                                                                                    graphic documents, hygrometric campaigns with reference to trends over time (yearly
                                                                                    campaign) and daily ranges.
                                                                                       The results in the temperature and relative humidity monitoring have shown:
                                                                                       stable values and dependent on the season in deposit (in the safe), notable thermo-
                                                                                    hygrometric ranges in case of use by scholars (fig. 9).
                                                                                       It’s been highlighted, therefore, the need to find a place for the artefact that could
                                                                                    enhance and make accessible the precious code and, at the same time, provide an opti-
                                                                                    mal microenvironment for its conservation [4, 7, 19-21, 24-25].
                                                                                       On the other hand, among the causes of graphic documents degradation, must be
                                                                                    mentioned the everyday reading.
S. Lorusso et al. - Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”




                                                                                       Among the protective and conservative actions the code digitization was planned.
                                                                                       As everybody knows this operation permits the consultation, even remotely, of a copy
                                                                                    without any interaction with the original text.




                                                                                            Figure 9. Temperature and relative humidity trends, compared with the
                                                                                            respective well being bands for graphics documents.

                                                            54
    The code digitization was carried out at the Photographic Laboratory in the
Department of History and Methods for Preservation of Cultural Heritage.


6. The digitization of the code

    The digitization of the codes was carried out at the Photographic Laboratory of the
Dipartimento di Storie e Metodi per la Conservazione dei Beni Culturali Alma Mater
Studiorum Università di Bologna in respect of legislation for the acquisition of digital pho-
tographs (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo and Documentation ICCD-1998).
    For the digitization, it was used the scanner planetary KODAC master File with
Cradle. The images captured were made with a depth of 48 bit colour.
    The scanner has the planetary core functions to produce quickly an image file
faithful to the original, perfectly centred and aligned, and has the following character-
istics:
–   shot from above, prerequisite to manipulate the code to a minimum;
–   presence of a cradle that allows, once supported by book, to compensate for the dif-
    ference between the two parts of volume so as to always put them in line with the
    recovery plan;
–   optical image-correction need to eliminate shadows, misalignment and curvature of
    the page.
    The processing was done with specific tools and filters: MATTLAB graphics process-
ing Fotoshop CS3.




                                                                                                     Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage




                Figure 10. Hell, c. 27 v., see traces of scriptio inferior in the
                visible image.

                                                                                                55
                                                                                                  Figure 11. Hell, c.27 v., see scriptio inferior (370 nmUV).
S. Lorusso et al. - Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”




                                                                                       At the Centro Interbibliotecario dell’Università di Bologna has developed a search
                                                                                    using various parameters for the test, allowing the recovery of the information and view
                                                                                    of digital images of pages in corresponding Jpeg format (fig. 10) and DjVu. This last for-
                                                                                    mat, in particular, allows for further image processing. In fig. 11 shows an example of
                                                                                    measurement of an Initial letter.
                                                                                       The parameters of the question are as follows:
                                                                                    ü Cantica (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise);
                                                                                    ü Card number;
                                                                                    ü Canto:
                                                                                    ü Verse:
                                                                                    ü Current page;
                                                                                    ü Previous page;
                                                                                    ü Following page.

                                                                                    7. Use of diagnostic techniques to improve the legibility of the Dantesque text and
                                                                                       allow the palimpsest reading and dating

                                                                                       Some shots with the multispectral system were taken during the digitization
                                                                                    process in the Diagnostic Lab, in the Department, to acquire images (MuSIS). This sys-
                                                                                    tem allows the acquisition of images, in the electromagnetic radiation band, ranging
                                                                                    from the 320 nm for the ultraviolet (UV) wavelength to the 1000 nm for infrared. The

                                                             56
MuSIS allows moreover the visible radiation decomposition in components from violet
to red.
    The instruments adopted are:
–   detection system consisting in a visible and infrared video camera with UV filters;
–   connection to a computer;
–   software for the image acquisition management.
    This system allows to select the wavelength range which is used to study the arte-
fact.
    As already pointed out, the investigation aimed to allow the palimpsest’s (scriptio infe-
rior) legibility – impossible under normal conditions (fig. 10) –, to carry out the palaeo-
graphic survey and so to make a post quem dating possible for the Dantesque text writ-
ten upon (scriptio superior). The range that provides the best results in this context is the
ultraviolet one (fig. 11).

7.1. Palaeographic inspection

    After taking such shootings, it was possible to submit the palimpsest’s to a palaeo-
graphic inspection. Such an investigation revealed that:
    The scriptio superior (the Dantesque text) was written in a Semi Gothic or Pre-human-
istic handwriting approximately datable around the last two decades of the XIV century,
since it shows the same characteristics of some codes by Coluccio Salutati (r and d still
have, in several examples, the “gothic” or modern letter form).
    The scriptio inferior, largely covered by the Dantesque text upon and rotated by 180
degrees, is a notarial cursive writing datable to the end of the XIII or the beginning of
the XIV century (approximately between 1280 and 1330). Isolated words (personal
names, sums of money or bushels of wheat) lead the text to a list of people required to              Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
provide specific payments in kind (bushels of wheat or librae or flasks of wine) or in
cash.

8. Considerations

    This lecture meant to demonstrate the importance of non-destructive diagnostic tech-
niques to find out the code writing period.
    The use of multispectral system for acquiring images (MuSIS) allowed to read the
palimpsest, making possible to carry out the palaeographic investigation which identified
in the scriptio inferior a notaral cursive writing datable between 1280 and 1330. The dat-
ing is compatible with the scriptio superior one. The subjects discussed in the palimpsest

                                                                                                57
                                                                                    text, relating to exchanges of goods and trade certified by a notary and therefore without
                                                                                    any value after few years, testify the parchment paper reuse after a short period follow-
                                                                                    ing the drawn up of the deed.
                                                                                         In conclusion, the possibility of conducting a palaeographic survey to get back to
                                                                                    a text as close as possible to the Dantesque original in terms of time caused an
                                                                                    increase in the manuscript historic and philologic value, and thus also in its econom-
                                                                                    ic one.



                                                                                    Notes
                                                                                    1   The research has been carried out with the collaboration of Friar Maurizio Bazzoni Director of the
                                                                                        Dantesque Centre of the “Frati Minori Conventuali”. From a scientific point of view his contribution
                                                                                        played a decisive role and his availability is particularly valuable since deriving from a Christian
                                                                                        and human vision.
S. Lorusso et al. - Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”




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S. Lorusso et al. - Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”




                                                                                    Summary
                                                                                    This work concerns the study of Dante’s Code, illuminated on parchment, which is preserved at the
                                                                                    Library of “Centro Dantesco dei Frati Minori Conventuali” in Ravenna.
                                                                                    This Code is well-known by the international scientific Community as Phillipps 9589 and its notori-
                                                                                    ety is not only due to the fact that it’s the only Dante’s Palimpsest, but also because it preserves, at
                                                                                    the scripto superior, one of the older witness of that branch of handwritten tradition of Dante’s
                                                                                    Commedia named “Tradition α”, the so-called “old Vulgate”.
                                                                                    The research, worked out for several stages, had aimed to examine the technical-diagnostic
                                                                                    aspects, in particular the general purposes had been:
                                                                                    – evaluation about the state of preservation;
                                                                                    – materials characterization;
                                                                                    – improvement of the legibility of Dante’s text and Palimpsest reading;
                                                                                    – evaluation about the preservative environment;
                                                                                    – code digitization suitable for a intranet and internet use.
                                                                                    In this connection, the following non-destructive diagnostic techniques bad been employed, also
                                                                                    related to a documentary aim:
                                                                                    – image analysis videomicroscope;
                                                                                    – spectrophotometric colorimetry;
                                                                                    – X-ray fluorescence (XRF);
                                                                                    – Multispectral Imaging System (MuSIS);
                                                                                    – environmental monitoring Instruments (thermohygrometer, illuminometer, aerosol spectrometer
                                                                                       PTS e PM10).


                                                                                    Riassunto
                                                                                    Il presente lavoro riguarda lo studio del Codice dantesco miniato su pergamena conservato presso
                                                                                    la Biblioteca del Centro Dantesco dei Frati Minori Conventuali di Ravenna.
                                                                                    Tale codice è noto alla comunità scientifica internazionale con la sigla di Phillipps 9589 e deve la
                                                                                    sua notorietà al fatto non solo di essere l’unico palinsesto dantesco, ma anche di conservare, nella
                                                                                    scriptio superior, uno tra i testimoni più antichi di quel ramo della tradizione manoscritta della
                                                                                    Commedia di Dante chiamata “Tradizione α”, la cosiddetta “antica Vulgata”.


                                                     60
La ricerca, svolta in più fasi, si è proposta di approfondire gli aspetti tecnico-diagnostici, in partico-
lare le finalità generali sono state:
– valutazione dello stato di conservazione;
– caratterizzazione dei materiali;
– miglioramento della leggibilità del testo dantesco e lettura del palinsesto;
– valutazione dell’ambiente di conservazione;
– digitalizzazione del codice per una fruizione intranet ed internet.
A tal riguardo ci si è avvalsi dell’impiego delle seguenti tecniche diagnostiche non-distruttive anche
a scopo documentario:
– fotografia digitale;
– videomicroscopio ad analisi di immagine;
– colorimetria spettrofotometrica;
– fluorescenza a raggi X (XRF);
– sistema multispettrale per l’acquisizione di immagini (MuSIS Multispectral Imaging System);
– strumentazioni per il monitoraggio ambientale (termoigrometro, luxmetro, prelevatore polveri PTS
   e PM10).


Résumé
Le présent ouvrage concerne l’étude du Code dantesque miniaturé sur parchemin, conservé auprès
de la Bibliothèque du Centre Dantesque des Frères Mineurs Conventuels de Ravenne.
Ce code est connu par la communauté scientifique internationale avec le sigle de Phillipps 9589
et doit sa notoriété au fait non seulement d’être l’unique palimpseste dantesque, mais aussi de
conserver, dans la scriptio superior, un des témoignages les plus antiques de cette branche de
la tradition manuscrite de la Comédie de Dante appelée “Tradition α”, la soi-disant “antica
Vulgata”.
La recherche, développée en plusieurs phases, s’est proposée d’approfondir les aspects technico-
diagnostiques, en particulier les finalités générales ont été:
– évaluation de l’état de conservation;
– caractérisation des matériaux;
– amélioration de la lisibilité du texte dantesque et lecture du palimpseste;
– évaluation du milieu de conservation;
– numérisation du code pour une jouissance intranet et internet.
À ce propos, on s’est servi de l’emploi des techniques diagnostiques non-destructives suivantes
aussi dans un but documentaire:
– photographie numérique;
– vidéomicroscope à analyse d’image;                                                                              Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
– colorimétrie spectrophotométrique;
– fluorescence à rayons X (XRF);
– système multispectral pour l’acquisition d’images (MuSIS Multispectral Imaging System);
– instrumentations pour le monitorage environnemental (thermohygromètre, luxmètre, préleveur
   poussières PTS et PM10).


Zusammenfassung
In dieser Arbeit wird der mit Miniaturen verzierte dantische Kodex auf Pergament studiert, der in der
Bibliothek des Zentrums der Dante-Forschung der Minoriten des Konvents in Ravenna verwahrt wird.
Dieser Kodex ist der internationalen wissenschaftlichen Welt unter dem Namen Phillipps 9589
bekannt, er ist berühmt nicht nur weil er der einzige dantische Palimpsest ist, sondern auch weil er
in der Scriptio Superior eines der antiksten Zeichen der Tradition der Manuskripte von Dantes
Commedia trägt, die sogenannte “Tradition α” oder “antike Vulgata”.
Die Forschung ist in verschiedenen Phasen aufgeteilt und zielt darauf, die technischen und diagno-


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                                                                                    stischen Aspekte eingehend zu studieren, insbesondere waren die allgemeinen Ziele der
                                                                                    Forschungsarbeit folgende:
                                                                                    – den Erhaltungszustand zu bewerten;
                                                                                    – die Materialien zu charakterisieren;
                                                                                    – die Lesbarkeit des dantischen Textes zu verbessern und den Palimpsest zu lesen;
                                                                                    – die Konservierungsumgebung zu bewerten;
                                                                                    – den Kodex zu digitalisieren, um ihn im Intranet und im Internet lesen zu können.
                                                                                    In diesem Zusammenhang wurden die folgenden Diagnosetechniken angewendet, die nicht zerstö-
                                                                                    rerisch sind, auch mit einem dokumentarischen Ziel:
                                                                                    – digitale Fotografie;
                                                                                    – Videomikroskop mit Bildanalyse;
                                                                                    – spektrale photometrische Kolorimetrie;
                                                                                    – Röntgenfluoreszenz (XRF);
                                                                                    – multispektrales System für das Aufnehmen von Bildern (MuSIS Multispectral Imaging
                                                                                       System);
                                                                                    – instrumentelle Ausrüstung für die Umweltüberwachung (Thermohygrometer, Luxmeter,
                                                                                       Vorrichtung zur Staubentnahme PTS und PM10).


                                                                                    Resumen
S. Lorusso et al. - Diagnosis and digitization of Dantesque Code “Phillipps 9589”




                                                                                    Este trabajo se refiere al estudio del códice de Dante miniado en pergamino que se conserva en la
                                                                                    Biblioteca del Centro Dantesco del Convento de los Frailes Menores de Rávena.
                                                                                    El códice, conocido por la comunidad científica internacional con la sigla Phillipps 9589, debe su
                                                                                    notoriedad no sólo al hecho de ser el único palimpsesto de Dante, sino también a que conserva, en
                                                                                    la scriptio superior, uno de los testimonios más antiguos de aquella rama de la tradición manuscri-
                                                                                    ta de la Comedia de Dante llamada “Tradición α”, la conocida como “antigua Vulgata”.
                                                                                    El estudio, que pasó por dos fases, se ha propuesto profundizar en los aspectos técnico-diagnósti-
                                                                                    cos. En particular, las finalidades generales han sido:
                                                                                    – evaluación del estado de conservación;
                                                                                    – caracterización de los materiales;
                                                                                    – mejora de la legibilidad del testo de Dante y lectura del palimpsesto;
                                                                                    – evaluación del ambiente de conservación;
                                                                                    – digitalización del código para su acceso intranet e internet.
                                                                                    En relación con ello se ha recurrido a las siguientes técnicas de diagnóstico no destructivas, tam-
                                                                                    bién con fines de documentación:
                                                                                    – fotografía digital;
                                                                                    – videomicroscopio con análisis de imagen;
                                                                                    – colorimetría espectrofotométrica;
                                                                                    – fluorescencia por rayos X (XRF);
                                                                                    – sistema multiespectral para adquisición de imágenes (MuSIS Multispectral Imaging System);
                                                                                    – instrumentación para la monitorización del ambiente de conservación (termohigrómetro, luxóme-
                                                                                       tro, captador de polvos PTS y PM10).




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