Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Spain

by Mireille Mentre

As the end of the first millennium drew near - a date when many expected the end of the world - the beleaguered Christian communities of Spain, still dominated by Islam, were experiencing a profound spiritual crisis. To make sense of their predicament, they turned to the Revelation of St John the Divine, in particular the commentary written three centuries before by the monk Beatus of Liebana, making of their illuminated manuscripts an art form of extraordinary expressive power. More than twenty of these manuscripts survive, dating from between 900 and 1100, all illuminated in a colorful style known as Mozarabic - a combination of Carolingian, Islamic, Byzantine and Visigothic art. The Beatus manuscripts are the largest, but not the only, body of such work; there are Bibles and a small number of other religious texts. All, however, share the same apocalyptic vision. Cut off from the rest of Europe and obsessed by the imminence of God's judgement, these artists invented a world peopled