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The codex in Paris contains the text of the Inferno, the first of three books of the Divine Comedy, the masterpiece of the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Canto 1 begins on folio 3r with a portrait of Dante in his study in a foliate and gilt initial N ("Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" [In the middle of the journey of our life]). Surrounded by manuscripts, the poet sits at a slant-top desk, holding pen and scraper and writing in a bound volume before him, like a medieval figure of an Evangelist or Father of the Church. The borders of the page, alive with birds, climbing roses, a putto chasing a butterfly, and golden sheaves of wheat, are decorated with seven lozenges containing classicising personifications of the seven Liberal Arts, with their chief protagonists seated at their feet.
Each of the thirty-two remaining cantos is preceded by a square or rectangular scene with an often graphically detailed vision of Hell described in the text that follows.
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