English Apocalypse manuscripts

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Apocalypse, add 18633, British Library
Add 18633 british library.png
AuthorUnknown (Text of saint John)
CountryEngland, Perhaps St Mary's Benedictine Abbey
LanguageApocalypse in Latin with a verse translation and prose commentary in French [imperfect] (fol. 1r-50v); with a prose paraphrase in Middle English (fol. 10v-39r). Text in two columns.
GenreApocalyptic
Published1250-1300
Pages50 leaflets
Website https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_18633
The owner's name is no longer legible, but the form of the anathema suggests possible ownership by the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary's.

Then owned by Basil Fielding (b. c. 1608 d. 1675), Earl of Denbigh: his armorial bookplate, dated 1703 on fol. i.

Purchased by the British Museum on 10 May 1851.

Illustrated Apocalypse manuscripts are manuscripts that contain the text of Revelation or a commentary on Revelation and also illustrations. Most of these Apocalypses were written between 1250 and 1400. The English Apocalypses are part of a larger group of Apocalypses called: the Anglo-Norman Apocalypses.

Paul Meyer and Léopold Delisle, in their book L'Apocalypse en français au XIIIe siècle (Paris MS fr. 403), 2 vols., Paris, 1901, [1] were the first scholars to try to list, describe and categorize the Apocalypse manuscripts.

M. R. James also wrote about illustrated Apocalypse manuscripts in his book The Apocalypse in Art, London, 1931. [2]

Since M. R. James' work, there have been a number of more recent studies by R. Freyhan, George Henderson, Peter Klein, Suzanne Lewis, Nigel Morgan and Lucy Sandler.

These manuscripts can be divided by the language and form of the Apocalypse text. Many manuscripts have a Latin text, others have an Anglo-Norman prose text and others have a French verse text combined with a Latin text. Two manuscripts do not have a separate text, but incorporate excerpts from the text into the illustrations.

The illustrations can be divided into several iconographic groups.


This is a not exhaustive list of known English Apocalypse manuscripts of the 13th and 14th centuries.

The Douce Apocalypse (21r); Oxford, Bodleian Library The Douce Apocalypse 21r - Oxford - Bodleian Library.jpg
The Douce Apocalypse (21r); Oxford, Bodleian Library

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References

  1. ↑ DELISLE Léopold et MEYER Paul, L’apocalypse en français au XIIIe siècle (Bibl. nat., fr. 403), mémoire sur les figures de l’apocalypse, BNF, coll. « Société des anciens textes français », 1901.
  2. ↑ Montague Rhodes James, The Apocalypse in art, Oxford, University Press., London, coll. « The Schweich Lectures 1927 », 1931.
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