In conclusion, he suggested a date considered now to be too late for the manuscript’s production, but his article provides a valuable look into early study of Beatus’ commentary and establishes the basic method still used by modern scholars. The study of the language and grammar in the manuscript text especially contributed to his aim of identifying a production date. Additionally, he worked in conjunction with outside scholars belonging to different academic fields, demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature of manuscript study. Whitehill employed a number of methods to study the folio, including paleography and formal analysis of the illuminated images. Whitehill’s article presents an early publication of this process, specifically centered on the Silos fragment, now recognized as the oldest surviving example of Beatus’ text. While several copies have been known to scholars for several decades, the discovery of previously unknown copies or fragments stimulated lively discussion centered on identification and dating. He provides much of the basic context and chronology authors utilize in their much more in-depth and specific studies on the Beatus manuscript group.Įarly studies of the Beatus commentary focused on identifying fragments and creating a chronology that represented their production. Klein’s introductory essay offers a simple exploration of how the Beatus text and images functioned as a singular unit. The style of the writing and the imagery remained relevant to the early medieval life, but as new exegetical literature emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and as the Gothic style spread throughout the European continent, the manuscripts disappeared from the ecclesiastical world. Klein examines the manuscript series as a whole, focusing on the text and illuminations in relationship to their historical context. In “Introduction: The Apocalypse in Medieval Art,” Peter K. However, scholars have inferred from the consistent Mozarabic style seen in the several tenth-century copies that the first painted images almost certainly displayed the same appearance. Because the very first manuscript produced directly from Beatus’ writings no longer exists, the original illuminations are unknown. The manuscript illuminations emerge as some of the most important from the early medieval period, retaining remarkable consistency of style between the numerous copies. Unfortunately, no copy of the manuscript surviving today remains in its complete, original form.Īlthough the work is valued for its text, the program of images has perhaps drawn the most attention. The commentary consists of compiled writings from several Fathers and Doctors of the Church, along with multiple prologues and exegetical writings of varying length, written by Beatus himself. Ultimately, the text and the image of Beatus’ commentary cannot be separated, as the reader utilizes both to fully interpret the complex messages. The scholarship cited in this project will look at scholarly studies addressing the commentary’s text, the commentary’s decorative program, and finally the close relationship between both. Approximately thirty copies survive, inspiring a wealth of study from modern academia in all fields. Although the mid- and late Middle Ages looked to other sources for apocalyptic commentary, the manuscripts did not completely disappear. By the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the commentary had spread outside Spain, mainly into neighboring Portugal and France. The commentary peaked in popularity in Spain during the tenth century several extant manuscripts, in varying degrees of completeness, were created in ecclesiastical institutions throughout the country. Almost immediately after creation, copies of the work appeared in abbeys across Spain, the oldest of which is the sole fragment of a ninth-century copy from the Abbey of Santo-Domingo de Silos. The Commentary on the Apocalypse, written by eighth-century monk Beatus of Liébana, has maintained its status as one of the most important medieval manuscripts for centuries.
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