The Saint-Sever Beatus (Part 6): St Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel

In the previous five parts of this series (part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4; part 5), we have seen images from an illuminated manuscript of the 11th century known as the Saint-Sever Beatus, 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 St Beatus of Liébana, a monk who lived in northern Spain in the 8th century. Nearly thirty copies of this text survive, and the repertoire of images that accompany it are believed to have originated with Beatus himself. One line of the manuscript tradition was also expanded to include St Jerome’s commentary on the book of Daniel, which is illustrated by pictures in a similar vein to those in the Apocalypse commentary although simpler and fewer. As noted below in their respective places, two of these images are repeated on a folio within the Apocalypse commentary, but I have been unable to find any information about why was done.

The illustrations begin in chapter 2, with King Nebuchadnezzar dreaming of the great statue made of gold, silver, brass, iron and clay. 

This is followed on the very next page by the great mountain from which a great stone is plucked, (resulting in the gap on its side), which strikes the statue. In the lower part, after it has struck the statue, the stone grows into a mountain which fills the whole earth. To the left, one can see the outline where the artist intended to show the broken statue, but did not complete it. (The folio is damaged on the left.) 

As mentioned above, for some reason, a more complete version of the same story is given much earlier within the manuscript, within the first chapters of the Apocalypse commentary.

The episode of the golden statue in Daniel 3, with the adoration of the statue at top, and the king ordering the three children to be cast into the furnace below, as the angel appears to protect them. 

Chapter 5, the episode of the handwriting on the wall.

In the longer form of the book of Daniel which the Church’s tradition has always accepted, Daniel is thrown into a lions’ den twice: once in chapter 6, and again in the episode known as that of Bel and the Dragon, which forms chapter 14 in the Vulgate. In the latter, an angel picks the prophet Habakkuk up by the hair, and carries him to Babylon so he can bring Daniel his supper. In this manuscript, the two are artistically conflated, sincethe version in chapter 14 is depicted together with the commentary on chapter 6. ~ Lions went extinct in Europe in late antiquity, and medieval artists, having never seen one live, often depict them as we see here, like large but wholly unthreatening looking dogs with manes.

On the very next page, King Darius is unable to sleep because of his preoccupation for Daniel, a detail which is given only in the chapter 6 version.

Daniel’s visions in chapter seven: the Ancient of Days (not looking very ancient), with the countless angels surrounding him, the river of fire, and the four beasts.

This representation of the same four beasts occurs much earlier in the manuscript, on the opposite side of the folio with the golden statue and the mountain seen above. At least three artists worked on this manuscript, and this one is clearly by a different hand than the later one. 

The vision of the battle between the ram and the he-goat in chapter 8.

In the second part of chapter 8, the angel Gabriel speaks to Daniel as he worships God before an altar, and at the end of the chapter, Daniel “languishes and was sick for some days.”

Daniel’s visions in chapter 10, of the angel dressed in linen, and of the two other angels at the Tigris river.