Dante's Dream on the Day of the Death of Beatrice: 9th of June, 1290 (fair
copy, State Historical Society of Iowa)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Production Description
Document Title: Dante's Dream on the Day of the Death of Beatrice, 9th of June,
1290
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of composition: 1873?
Type of Manuscript: fair copy
Collation: 1 page
Scribe: DGR
Corrector: DGR
Provenance
Current Location: State Historical Society of Iowa
Catalog Number: Charles Aldrich Autograph Collection
Note: Aldrich knew WMR and received this manuscript, as well as all his
other collection, from the Rossetti family. A note in the library of the
Historical Society dated 20 July 1894 and signed by Aldrich indicates
that he had 58 DGR letters at that time, as well as a considerable body
of other autograph material. The library now reports this material is
not to be found in its collections.
Physical Description
Paper: 17.3 x 11 cm.
Other Physical Features: The verso has the following note in an unknown hand:
“Original Manuscript by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
page images | transcript
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This is the only manuscript that appears to survive. The text was used as the epigraph for the broadside that DGR had printed to accompany his oil painting Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice
Textual History: Revision
Some uncertainty hangs about the date of the manuscript. The manuscript presents the text as printed in DGR's 1874 revised edition of the 1861 Early Italian Poets volume. The integral character of the manuscript, however, suggests that it was copied from the printed text specifically for the 1881 occasion—i.e., as the epigraph for his broadside ekphrasis printed that year. Nonetheless, the manuscript might be earlier.