The Saint-Sever Beatus: An Illustrated Commentary on the Apocalypse (Part 2)

This is the second part of an ongoing series on the Saint-Sever Beatus, an illuminated manuscript of the 11th century produced at the abbey of Saint-Sever in southwestern France. The primary text which it illustrates, and for which it is named, is a commentary on the book of the Apocalypse written by Saint Beatus of Liébana, a monk who lived in northern Spain in the 8th century. It also contains a commentary on the book of Daniel by St Jerome, and a treatise on the perpetual virginity of Mary by St Ildefonse of Toledo. There are nearly thirty surviving Beatus manuscripts, but this is the only one that comes from France. For further details, see part 1. This article covers one of the most famous things about this type of manuscript, a detailed map of the world. (image 7).

A random decorated letter A, with a monkey and wolf (helpfully labeled) standing on it, and two birds underneath.

Early medieval authors did not shy away from prolixity, and the commentary begins with 24 pages of prologues and summaries.

Another purely decorative element before the commentary itself begins.

It is followed immediately by this double image; in the upper part, Christ consigns the book of the Apocalypse to an angel, and in the lower, the angel speaks to St John for the first time as he hands him the book. The figure standing behind St John is most likely St Prochorus, one of the first seven deacons, who became his amanuensis.

“The Lord upon the clouds, and His enemies, and they who pierced Him, see him.” (Apocalypse 1, 7)

Saint John’s vision of the angel with the seven stars, and the Lord Himself amid the seven candlesticks, from chapter 1. The lower part shows verse 11, where John is enjoined to write to the seven churches of Asia, each of which is represented by a building with an altar in it, the gold T-shaped object.

The highly stylized map of the world, with East at the top, and the North on the left. Right below the label ORIENS is shown the terrestrial paradise with Adam and Eve and the tree. The red strip on the right is the Red Sea, and the blue section in the middle is the Mediterranean, and the green ovals within it and in the surrounding ocean are the major islands. This particular manuscript has a much greater number of place names than its Spanish counterparts. ~ At an unknown date, the two folios of the map were removed from the manuscript and lost, but rediscovered in 1866, and reintegrated into it.

After 11 more pages of the commentary, there occur four illuminated pages together. The first three are images from the book of Daniel, the vision of the four beasts in chapter 7...

followed by the vision of the statue, and the stone broken off the mountain that breaks in, from chapter 2.

Also from chapter two, this seems to be a representation of the words of verse 38, where Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, “he hath also given the birds of the air into thy hand, and hath put all things under thy power: thou therefore art the head of gold.”

This is followed by the woman sitting upon the beast in Apocalypse 17, who perhaps represents the last kingdom in the vision of the statue, it is not at all clear to me why this set of pictures is here at all.

After several more folios of text, there begins the explanation of the epistles to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 of the Apocalypse, each of which is introduced by a picture of St John speaking to the angel of that particular church. First is Ephesus...

Smyrna (spelled “Zmirna”)

Pergamum

Thyatira

Sardis

Philadelphia

and Laodicia.

It is also not evident why this representation of the flood of Noah is included in the midst of the section on the letter to the church of Laodicia. The figures in the top and bottom sections are the giants mentioned in Genesis 6, 4; Noah’s dove is at the upper left.