MINIATURIST, Greek
(active around 1570 in Sicily)

Leo VI: Oracles

1566-74
Manuscript (Ms. I. E. 8))
Biblioteca Centrale, Palermo

This Greek manuscript contains fifteen prophecies of the Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-912) concerning the end of the Comnenian empire and the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks. The manuscript belonged to the Jesuit Collegio Massimo in Palermo. The text takes up fifteen pages each illustrated with coloured pen drawings accompanied by verses.

The fourth Oracle is shown on folio 4. There is a city wall with two gates, one open, the other closed. On the walls are four towers, three have domed roofs, and one a conical roof. At the bottom, to the left, a goblet containing a severed head is linked to the walls by a rivulet of blood.