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STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER RICHARD K. EMMERSON and BERNARD McGINN, eds. The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, N.Y, and London: Cornell University Press, 1992. Pp. xiii, 428. $18.85 paper. This collection of essays supplies us with a much-needed survey of the central role played in medieval culture by John's Apocalypse. The book moves us substantially toward a yet-to-be-written comprehensive history ofthe Apocalypse in the Middle Ages and a full appreciation of that work's influence on other medieval literatures. It increases our understanding of the liturgical nature of the Apocalypse and its place in Christian worship and studies the place of apocalyptic art in the development of Christian iconography. As the editors put it, their aim is to "present the impact the Apocalypse had, not only on theology and exegesis, but also on art, on literature, on historical thinking, and on the myriad components that make up the indefinable complex we call culture" (p. xii). No previous study has made such an attempt. This one does so with remarkable success. The breadth and interdisciplinary rigor of the task requires a multiform expertise. Along with their own significant contributions, the editors call upon an impressive array ofscholars. Margery Reeves, to whom the book is dedicated, is here only as an indirect if influential presence; so too with Beryl Smalley, Adela Yarbro Collins, John Collins, John Court, and others whose work is plentifully cited. Their absence from the title page notwith­ standing, this volume provides an admirable forum on apocalypticism by a distinguished panel. The essays are for the most part original, though Peter Klein's essay is a revised version of an article written in 1989 for the Enciclopedia dell'arte medievale of Rome. The two editors, well known and highly respected scholars of apocalypticism, complement each other handsomely in their theological and literary skills. The volume is lucidly and coherently organized into three main sections, on theology, art, and literary culture in broadly defined senses. The result is in effect a compre­ hensive three-day conference on the uses of the Apocalypse during the Middle Ages, from Tyconius and Augustine to Diirer and the eve of the Reformation. Day 1 of the conference: Bernard McGinn's introductory essay offers a compact, incisive introduction to the history of Apocalypse theology and exegesis, stressing the distinction between heavenly journeys and those in which an angel or other celestial figure descends to an earthbound receiver of revelation and pointing out as well the textual (as opposed to oral) character ofapocalyptic writing. McGinn sees both a "vertical" and a "hori202 REVIEWS zontal" dimension in apocalypticism as it looks upward to the heavens and yet also moves outward into the meaning of history. John's Apocalypse adopts a recapitulative model well suited to its numerical symbolism. Paula Fredriksen takes up the story historically with an examination of Tyconius and Augustine in the context of a fundamentalist and socially disruptive movement in the late fourth century in North Africa (Au­ gustine, once himself a millenarian, sought to combat an apocalyptic inter­ pretation of current history fueled by Vandal incursions and by a conse­ quent anticipation of the parousia). Other historical essays explore the Apocalypse in early medieval exegesis (by Ann Matter), the medieval re­ turn to the thousand-year sabbath (Robert Lerner), Joachim of Fiore (Ran­ dolph Daniel), and mendicant readings of the Apocalypse (David Burr). The whole section on theology reads as a continuous and well-focused narrative, with no more repetition than is necessary to keep the central theme clearly in view. Day 2 of the conference, on art history, is, in retrospect, the day I might have chosen to visit some museum instead of sitting through the papers. It is not as though the subject is uninteresting or the panelists lacking in expertise; to the contrary, the factual content is impressive. In presentation, however, the perspective becomes confused. The many plates (fifty-seven in all) are not reproduced in sharp visual detail; the inexpensive means of reproduction is no doubt necessary in a book that is so reasonably priced, but the result is that many particulars are hard to make out. This visual...

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