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.
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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.
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.
