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Beatus of Liébana (730-800 AD) was a monk, theologian and geographer from the Kingdom of Asturias. In a monastery in the mountains of northern Spain, 700 years after the Book of Revelations was written, he set down to illustrate a collection of writings he had compiled about this most vivid and apocalyptic of the New Testament books. Throughout the next few centuries his depictions of multi-headed beasts, decapitated sinners, and trumpet blowing angels, would be copied over and over again in various versions of the manuscript.
This manuscript from Saint-Sever, Gascogne, contains Beatus of Liébana's Commentary. The miniature on folio 26v depicts God giving the text to an angel (top) who in turn transfers it to St John (bottom).
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