Beatus of Liébana
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Beatus of Liébana (c. 730 - c. 800) was a Spanish monk and theologian who developed its work in the Cantabrian region of Liébana creating an important Christian cultural and religious focus during the 8th century. He corresponded with Alcuin, and took part in the Adoptionist controversy, criticizing the views of Felix of Urgel and Elipandus of Toledo. He is best remembered today as the author of his Commentary on the Apocalypse, written first in 776 and then revised in 784 and again in 786. This commentary was popular during the Middle Ages and survives in at least 34 manuscripts (usually called a beatus) from the 10th through the 16th centuries. At least 26 of those manuscripts contain illuminations. Though Beatus may have written his commentaries as a response to the Adoptionist heresy in Spain of the late 700s, many believe the book's monastic popularity to stem from the presence of Islam in Spain, which the Christian religious believed to represent the Antichrist. Not all of the manuscripts are complete, and some exist only in fragmentary form. Twenty-six of these manuscripts are lavishly decorated in Mozarabic, Romanesque, or Gothic style of illumination. The Commentary also contained one of the oldest Christian world-maps, thought to visualize the description given by Isidore of Seville in his Etymologies. Although the original manuscript and map have not survived, copies of the map survive in several of the extant manuscripts. For more information on Beatus of Liébana or on the Beatus Apocalypse manuscripts, one should see the studies carried out by John Williams, Mireille Mentre, José Camón Aznar, Wilhelm Neuss, Joaquín Yarza Luaces, among others. Recent doctoral dissertations on the subject have been written by David Seth Raizman and Kevin Ray Poole.
