{"id":1671,"date":"2014-04-08T07:33:43","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T07:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2017-09-11T12:23:59","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T10:23:59","slug":"beatus-liebana-berlin-uncommon-beatus-manuscript","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/beatus-liebana-berlin-uncommon-beatus-manuscript\/","title":{"rendered":"Beatus of Li\u00e9bana, Berlin Codex: an uncommon Beatus manuscript"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Romanesque Beatus of Li\u00e9bana in Berlin<\/h2>\n

The Romanesque<\/strong> codex of the Beatus of Li\u00e9bana<\/strong> preserved in the Staatsbibliothek, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, in Berlin (Ms. theol. lat. fol. 561) is one of the only three extant Beatus manuscripts<\/strong> written and illustrated outside the Iberian Peninsula.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, its cycle of 55 illustrations generally does not correspond to the Beatus of Li\u00e9bana\u00a0iconography<\/strong>, but rather follows a tradition that was predominant in Central Europe during the Romanesque period. The Berlin codex<\/strong> was certainly made in Italy in the 12th century;<\/span> however, its precise date and place of origin remain controversial.<\/p>\n

A cycle of 55 illustration, not corresponding to the common Beatus of Li\u00e9bana iconography<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We also don’t know why a probably monastic library<\/strong> in Italy ordered a copy of an Apocalypse commentary<\/strong> whose tradition and influence were basically limited to the Iberian Peninsula. Hence, the Berlin Beatus codex poses many interesting and fascinating problems. Thus it is surprising that so far the Berlin Beatus of Li\u00e9bana<\/strong>\u00a0has received little scholarly attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

In case you missed it: check out the beautiful gallery of the Berlin Beatus\u00a0and find out all the facsimile editions available on Facsimile Finder!<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Except for the fundamental study of the Beatus of Li\u00e9bana\u00a0manuscripts by Wilhelm Neuss<\/strong>, the Berlin codex has only been briefly discussed and described by Andreas Fingernagel<\/strong> in one of the manuscript catalogues of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek, and by John Williams<\/strong> in his Corpus of the illustrated Beatus manuscripts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A manuscript with South Italian Beneventan influences<\/h2>\n

The Berlin Beatus of Li\u00e9bana<\/strong>\u00a0is a parchment codex of 98 folios. The folios normally measure 297 x 190 mm and must have been trimmed, at least at the lower margins, since part of the catchwords at the end of the gatherings are missing. The parchment of goat skin is not of high quality, with many holes and signs of wear.<\/p>\n

Trimmed in the lower margins, folios are gathered in quaternions<\/em>, with the exception of a quinio<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The text is written in double columns of 42 \u2013 45 lines, in a Caroline or Romanesque script<\/strong>, with some influence of the South Italian Beneventan script<\/strong>. The nineteenth-century half-leather binding measures 310 x 198 mm, and on its spine carries the Italian title “Apocalisse con commenti e disegni a penna” (Apocalypse with commentary<\/strong> and pen drawings).<\/p>\n

\"Beatus<\/a>
Beatus of Li\u00e9bana, Berlin Codex<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The codex has an older ink foliation in the right margin and a modern pencil foliation in the upper right corner. The gatherings are normally quaternios<\/strong>, i.e. quires composed of four double sheets of parchment folded in half to form eight leaves; the catchwords at the end of the gatherings appear in the lower margin. As an exception, folios 25 \u2013 34 form a quinio<\/strong>, a gathering with ten leaves.<\/p>\n

Content of the Beatus de Li\u00e9bana, Berlin Codex<\/h2>\n

The text of the Berlin codex is limited to the Beatus commentary<\/strong> proper. It lacks all supplementary texts, such as the letter of dedication, the prologues, the Summa dicendorum<\/em><\/strong> (a kind of lengthy summary of the Beatus of Li\u00e9bana\u00a0commentary<\/strong>), the paragraph De Antichristo<\/em> and the Antichrist Tables<\/strong> and, of course, all the supplementary texts which belong to the second family of the Beatus manuscripts<\/strong> which have the most recent, tenth-century edition of the commentary (since the text of the Berlin codex belongs to the older edition of the Beatus of Li\u00e9bana\u00a0manuscripts<\/strong>, the so-called Family I).<\/p>\n

The Berlin Beatus of Li\u00e9bana<\/strong>\u00a0also lacks the passage on the time of the end of the world<\/strong> and the present time of the making of the manuscript, probably because the copyist<\/strong> of the Berlin codex found this passage theologically problematic; instead, he left part of the text column empty (fol. 52v). Nonetheless, the text includes the explanation of the precious stones of the Heavenly Jerusalem (Apoc. XXI, 18 \u2013 20) which derives from the Etymologiae<\/em><\/strong> of Isidore of Seville<\/strong> (XVI, 7ff.), and which is illustrated in the other Beatus manuscripts, but not in the Berlin codex.<\/p>\n

The Berlin Beatus, together with the Corsini, a copy at the Escorial, and the Vatican lat. 7621, form a subgroup of Beatus of Li\u00e9bana manuscripts<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is also a confusion of the text sections between folios 33v and 37v, a confusion which recurs in the 12th-century Corsini Beatus<\/a> (Rome, Biblioteca dell’Academia dei Lincei e Corsiniana, Ms. 40.E.6) as well as in two 16th-century copies in the Escorial<\/strong> (Biblioteca del Monasterio, cod. I.f.7) and the Vatican (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana<\/strong>, Cod. Vat. lat. 7621). With the latter two the Berlin codex also shares the incomplete end of the commentary (ending with the words “ita intelligendo”); therefore, these four manuscripts form a specific subgroup within the first family of the Beatus manuscripts.<\/p>\n

\"Beatus<\/a>
The facsimile reproduces the physical features down to the parchment holes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Furthermore, in the Berlin Beatus of Li\u00e9bana<\/strong>, the text of the commentary has been copied in a hasty and careless way, omitting nearly all of the chapter headings and often the paragraphs of the Apocalypse<\/strong> texts (called ‘storia’). This makes identifying a specific chapter or paragraph of the commentary very difficult.<\/p>\n

A Beato of Li\u00e9bana with no evident time and place<\/h2>\n

The Berlin Beatus of Li\u00e9bana<\/strong>\u00a0manuscript does not contain any reference to its time and place of origin. Hence, we have to rely on internal evidence, basically the paleography<\/strong> of the script and the style of one initial and the illustrations.<\/p>\n

From the time scholars started to discuss the date and scriptorium<\/em><\/strong>, i.e. the place of origin, of this codex, there has been a consensus on two points:<\/p>\n