Four illuminated sheets follow Dante through Paradise: from his encounter with Beatrice to his profession of faith before Saint Peter, from his contemplation of Adam to his final vision of God.
The Divine Comedy by Marciana: Four Cards of Paradise, from Beatrice to the Vision of God
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Antiquus
The Divine Comedy of the Marciana Library is one of the most fascinating 14th-century illuminated manuscripts dedicated to Dante Alighieri's poem. Preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice with the shelfmark Cod. It. IX, 276 (=6902), it combines the text of the Comedy with a rich figurative apparatus that accompanies the reader from Hell to Paradise.
In this article we examine four pages of Paradise from St. Mark's Divine Comedy, specifically pages 53, 58, 72, and 77. These are four key moments in Dante's journey: Dante rediscovers Beatrice, meets Saint Peter, contemplates Adam, and reaches his final vision of God.
Manuscript and single leaf: two different ways of encountering Dante
When preparing content for Antiquus, we often notice a significant difference between the experience of a complete manuscript and that of a single folio.
The facsimile manuscript has an immediate "wow" effect. You see it, touch it, leaf through it, feel its weight, hear the rustle of the paper, and rediscover that mental—almost physical—smell of an ancient library. It is an object that engages all the senses and immediately conveys the material power of culture.
A single leaf, which at first glance might seem like a minor element compared to the entire volume, actually allows for something precious: it focuses attention on a single detail. It isolates a scene, a passage, an image. And precisely thanks to this isolation, it brings to light details that, leafing through the entire manuscript, might otherwise be overlooked or would require months of study to fully grasp.
From the Lucifer of Hell to the miniatures of Paradise
Until now, we have described the Divine Comedy by St. Mark mainly through some images of Hell: the famous full-page figure of Lucifer, the scene in which Dante and Virgil use Lucifer's body as a ladder to escape the abyss—"And then we emerged to see the stars again"—and the color code used in the illuminations of the Comedy.
We hadn't yet dedicated a specific study to Paradise, perhaps because the encounters here appear less dramatic and passionate than those in Hell.
Yet it is precisely in Paradise that medieval miniature faces its most difficult challenge: making visible that which, by its nature, surpasses sight.
The opportunity now arrives with the cataloguing of four cards taken from the Paradise of the Divine Comedy by St. Mark: sheets 53, 58, 72 and 77.
The Divine Comedy of St. Mark
The Divine Comedy Marciana is a precious illuminated manuscript of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, today preserved in the Marciana National Library in Venice.
Its signature is: Cod. It. IX, 276 (=6902).
It is called the "Marciana" precisely because it belongs to the Marciana Library. It is a particularly important codex because it combines the text of the Divine Comedy with a rich cycle of narrative images. The manuscript dates to the late 14th century and features extensive decoration, with miniatures that accompany Dante's journey through the three canticles.
It is, in essence, an illustrated Divine Comedy: a work in which text and image engage in a continuous dialogue. The illuminations help the reader delve into the narrative, theological, and symbolic passages of Dante's journey: Hell, Purgatory, and above all Paradise, where colors, haloed figures, starry skies, and visionary scenes attempt to convey what Dante recounts in verse.
Through four pages of Paradise we can therefore follow Dante in some of the highest moments of his journey: from the finding of Beatrice to the final contemplation of God.
Sheet 53r–53v: Beatrice, the beloved found in heaven
The first threshold of Paradise in the Divine Comedy by St. Mark is folio 53r–53v, which opens the canticle of light.
Dante enters Paradise, but he doesn't enter alone. Beatrice is beside him. And this changes everything.
After Hell, after the fear, after the darkness, and after the purification of Purgatory, Dante finds the woman he loves again. No longer a memory, no longer a distant apparition, no longer merely a figure of his poetic youth. Beatrice is there, beside him, in the starry sky: a living, luminous, transfigured presence.
In an overall view of the manuscript, this sheet could be read simply as the beginning of Paradiso. Observed alone, however, it reveals its full emotional power: Dante finds both Paradiso and Beatrice at the same time.
It is as if the entrance into the light had the face of the beloved.
In Dante's Paradise, Beatrice is no longer merely the woman of the New Life. She is guide, wisdom, destiny. Earthly love is elevated, purified, and transformed into a path to God. For Dante, Paradise does not begin as an abstract theological concept, but as an encounter: heaven opens through a beloved presence.
This card tells the story of the moment when love becomes salvation.
Sheet 58r–58v: Venus, love as a vocation
The second threshold of Paradise in Marciana's Divine Comedy is folio 58r–58v, set in the heaven of Venus.
Here, love changes form once again. It is no longer simply the rediscovery of Beatrice, nor merely nostalgia, desire, or memory. In the heavens of Venus, love becomes a deeper force: inclination, nature, vocation.
Dante meets Charles Martel of Anjou, who speaks to him of providential order and the natural dispositions of humanity. Every soul has its own form, its own direction, a talent that demands recognition. Disorder arises when this inclination is betrayed, when men are forced into roles that do not correspond to their nature.
It's a surprisingly modern theme.
In the heaven of Venus, Dante understands that love is not just passion. It is also orientation. It is the strength that can reveal each person's place in the world. What on earth appears confused, fragile, or disordered finds a higher measure in Paradise.
Card 58r–58v is precious for this very reason: it shows a Dante who learns to read love not as a simple emotion, but as part of the order of the universe.
Love isn't denied. It's illuminated.
Sheet 72r–72v: Saint Peter, the saints and Adam, the four “faces” of Paradise
The third threshold is folio 72r–72v, one of the densest sheets of the final part of the Paradiso of Marciana's Divine Comedy.
Here Dante finds himself in the heaven of the Fixed Stars. Before him appear great luminous presences: Saint Peter, Saint James, Saint John, and Adam. They are the four "faces" of Paradise.
Before anyone thinks it's a typo: no, there aren't two missing "c's." Dante writes "face," not "faces." In his language, "face" means torches, flames, burning lights. Not four faces, then, but four luminous presences shining before the poet's eyes.
So yes: "quattro face" is correct. "Quattro facce" would be much less heavenly...
Saint Peter is recognizable by his keys, his traditional attribute. Those keys are not simply a decorative detail: they are the sign of apostolic authority, of the early Church, of access to heaven. But in Paradise, Dante encounters not only a peaceful and blessing Saint Peter. He sees him aflame with indignation against the corruption of the earthly Church.
It's one of the most powerful moments in the Comedy: the denunciation is set not in Hell, but in Paradise. As if only from the greatest light were it possible to truly see the truth of the world.
Next to Peter are Saint James and Saint John, associated with hope and charity respectively. And then there is Adam.
Let's think about it from Dante's point of view: seeing the first man, the first glance at earth, the first language, the first innocence, the first fall.
Adam is not only the symbol of original sin. In Paradise, he is also the sign of redemption. He is proof that salvation can reach man from his very origins. Dante finds himself facing the very root of humanity, no longer as a loss, but as a redeemed history.
This card brings together everything: faith, hope, charity, the origin of man, judgment on the Church, and the ascent towards the Primum Mobile, the heaven that moves the universe.
It's a page in which Heaven doesn't just console. Heaven judges, reveals, and commands.
Sheet 77r–77v: the Virgin and God, the point where the word stops
The fourth threshold is folio 77r–77v, which leads Dante to the last canto of the Divine Comedy.
We are in Paradise XXXIII. The journey is almost over. Dante has traversed evil, purification, love, the celestial spheres, the figures of the saints, and the order of the cosmos. Now he arrives at the final threshold.
The song opens with one of the most famous verses in Italian literature:
“Virgin mother, daughter of your son…”
It is Saint Bernard's prayer to the Virgin Mary. Dante's final guide no longer explains: he prays. And this is crucial. When you reach the end, reason is not enough. Poetry is not enough. Desire is not enough. Grace is needed.
Mary is the door to the final vision. She is the one who allows Dante to sustain, for a moment, the light of God.
This page contains the highest and most fragile point of the entire work. Dante sees, but knows he cannot truly describe what he has seen. Memory fails. Language is not enough. Imagination surrenders. And it is precisely here that poetry reaches its pinnacle: when it recognizes its own limits before the light.
The Comedy doesn't end with an explanation. It ends with an intuition:
“the love that moves the sun and the other stars.”
After Beatrice, after Saint Peter, after the saints, after Adam and after Mary, Dante understands that the ultimate principle is not force, not power, not reason alone. It is love.
The love that moved him from the beginning. The love that took the face of Beatrice. The love that orders the heavens. The love that saves human history. The love that moves the universe.
Four cards, one journey
These four cards from the Divine Comedy by St. Mark are not simple reproductions. They are four privileged entrances to Dante's Paradise.
Folios 53r–53v depict the rediscovered beloved: Beatrice as the face of light and salvation.
Folios 58r–58v depict love as a vocation: the heaven of Venus, Charles Martel, and the profound order of human inclinations.
Folios 72r–72v depict Saint Peter, Saint James, Saint John, and Adam: the four "faces" of Paradise, between faith, hope, charity, the origin of man, and the judgment of light.
Folios 77r–77v depict the Virgin, God, and the end of the journey: the point where the word stops before the final vision.
The complete manuscript offers the wonder of totality. The individual pages offer the intimacy of contemplation. One allows you to traverse the work; the other allows you to pause before a decisive moment and let it speak for itself.
Perhaps this is the deepest value of an illuminated map: choosing a detail and discovering that, in that detail, infinity is hidden.
Conclusion
For Antiquus, the Divine Comedy of St. Mark is interesting precisely because it offers two different levels of experience.
The complete manuscript delivers the “wow” effect: the cover, the leather, the weight, the format, the sequence of the pages and the total experience of the work.
The single facsimile leaf, however, functions like a lens. It isolates a specific moment and allows us to observe details that, in the entire codex, would risk being overlooked: Beatrice in the starry sky, Saint Peter with the keys, Adam among the blessed figures, or the prayer "Virgin Mother" in the final canto.
This is where illuminated paper reveals its strength: it doesn't replace the manuscript, but rather brings it closer. It doesn't diminish the work, but concentrates it. It allows us to pause before a fragment and discover that that fragment already contains an entire universe of images, symbols, and meanings.
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