Morgan Beatus

Morgan Beatus, f. 112: The opening of the Sixth Seal: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood" (Revelation, 6.12)

The Morgan Beatus (New York, Morgan Library & Museum, MS 644) is an illuminated manuscript with miniatures by the artist Magius (or Maius) of the Commentary on the Book of the Apocalypse by the eighth-century Spanish monk Beatus, which described the end of days and the Last Judgment. The manuscript is believed to have been produced in and around the scriptorium of the Monastery of San Miguel de Escalada in Spain.[1]

Having been created at some time in the 10th century, the Morgan Beatus is one of the oldest examples of a revived Spanish apocalypse tradition, and one of the earliest works of so-called Mozarabic art. The Apocalypse and the commentary on this scripture by Saint Beatus of Liébana became one of the most important religious texts of the Middle Ages, and was often illustrated very fully.

  1. ^ Williams, John (2017). "The Census: A Complete Register of Illustrated Beatus Commentaries and Fragments". In Martin, Therese (ed.). Visions of the End in Medieval Spain. Amsterdam University Press. p. 69.