Strata: Special Collections

The Book of Revelation, with its puzzling and terrifying language, was a challenge for many medieval illuminators, but it also provided many memorable images, such as Christ in Majesty, the Adoration of the Lamb, and the symbols of the Four Evangelists.

Apocalypse Then celebrates the completion of a facsimile of the Morgan’s “Las Huelgas” Apocalypse—the latest-dated (1220) and largest surviving manuscript of a Spanish tradition of illuminated commentaries on the Apocalypse, by the monk Beatus of Liébana. Since the manuscript was disbound for the preparation of the facsimile, visitors will have the unique opportunity to see 50 of its miniatures at once. The exhibition is arranged according to the sequence of the Apocalypse text itself, allowing visitors to “walk-through” the manuscript.

The exhibition also includes other Apocalypses representing Spanish, English, French, Flemish and Russian manuscript-illumination traditions.