The illustrated Beatus: a corpus of the illustrations of the commentary on the Apocalypse. Vol. I: Introduction. Vol. II: the ninth and tenth centuries (review)

242 Reviews monastery and enjoying excellentrelationswith tbe abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Casamari, is never satisfactorily explained. Wessley has made a close study of the sources and succeeds in his aim of identifying 'a particular pattern of thinking, the use of certain symbols by Joachim of Fiore and his Florensian foUowers that created a Florensian ideology' (p. x). He demonstrates the continuity of imagery, symbolism, and preoccupation between Joachim's writings and the anonymous Vita and miracles, and makes a convincing case, on tbe same grounds, for Florensian authorship of the commentary on Jeremiah. One of the most illuminating pieces of analysis is bis comparison of tbe two Vitae, one written by a monk of Fiore, and one by a Cistercian who bad been Joachim's companion and secretary before the latter withdrew from his own monastery of Corrazzo and founded the new order. The twotextspresent very different pictures of Joachim, which Wessley identifies as 'Florensian' and 'Cistercian'. For the Florensians, be was the visionary founder of the order which would usher in the new age. For the Cistercians he remained an exemplary Cistercian abbot the Vita making no mention of his departure from his abbey or of the new order. This book reminds us of the importance of his role as an abbot and founder, eclipsed in the foUowing centuries by his fame as a prophet. Janice Pinder Department of History Monash Univeristy Williams, John, The illustrated Beatus: a corpus of the illustrations of t commentary on the Apocalypse. Vol. I: Introduction. Vol. II: the ninth and tenth centuries, London, Harvey MiUer, 1994; cloth; pp. 216 & 319; 100 & 407 illustrations, 41 plates (vol. I); R.R.P. £80.00 &£80.00. Volumes three to five will complete the corpus of approximately 1500 illustrations and some of the ornament from twenty six illustrated manuscripts, dating from the late ninth to the mid thirteenth century, of Beatus of Lidbana's edition and commentary on St John's Book of Revelations.1 This was compiled in the period A D 776-86 in the Christian kingdom of Asturias, in northern Spain, subsequently part of the kingdom of Le6n. His text survives in thirty two manuscripts, whole and 1 Volumes three to five will be reviewed in a future issue of Parergon. [Rev. Ed.] Reviews 243 fragmentary, and amounts to over 1,000 pages in the most recent edition. It consists of a pre-Vulgate Latin version of the Apocalypse, divided into 68 sections, each followed by a commentary compiled in scissors-and-paste fashion from patristic sources including Irenaeus, Jerome, Augustine, and Isidore of Seville, but notably Tyconius of North Africa (t ca. 390). The Ulustrations, containing a wealth of images, are placed between the text and commentary andrelatefar more to tbetextthan to the commentary. They are independent of other Ulustrated versions of the Apocalypse but closely related to each other. All of these, with two exceptions, were produced in northern Spain. By the mid ninth century Jerome's commentary to the Book of Daniel had been annexed. In the mid tenth century an expanded program including non-Apocalyptic images appeared, perhaps, as WUliams argues, as a result of the collaboration of two scribe-painters Maius and Florentius. Half the surviving manuscripts belong to this group. They include the Daniel commentary, genealogical tables of the ancestors of Christ and portraits of the Gospel writers with their symbols. In Spain illustrated Beams manuscripts seem to have been a substitute in popularity for illuminated Gospel books elsewhere. This branch of manuscripts is also characterized by borders to tbe illustrations and often a background of bands of different colours, probably under the influence of ninth-century manuscripts produced in Tours. The introductory volume dealsfirstwith the attribution of the work to Beatus and the nature of the text. Then there is a major study of the stemmas proposed for the text and illustrations and of the distinctively colourful and flat 'primitive' style of the Ulustrations. This style, he notes, has influenced artists such as Leger and Matta, and perhaps Picasso, particularly through the Morgan Beatus in N e w York and the writings of Meyer Schapiro. A chapter is devoted to the use made of the commentary, at...