The Girona Beatus showcases an extraordinary and complex iconographical variety. The elements compiled from different backgrounds, particularly those of classical Carolingian and Muslim origin, and the almost completely original new subject matter incorporated for the first time, make one wonder how all this was possible in Tabara monastery in 975. What library endowed with illuminated manuscripts did the artists have access to? It must also be said that without the artists’ imagination and their ability to use, manipulate and transform the material received – something we often and almost always rightly deny them – the outcome would have been very different.
What makes this manuscript unique is the vast number of additional illustrations it contains in comparison to previous Beatus. It begins with a Cross and a Maiestas, followed by a vision of heaven having no known, extant precedents, and continues with six miniatures of the Evangelists. It also features genealogies which extend throughout a remarkable cycle of the life and death of Jesus Christ, a cycle found in no other codex and rather uncommon in the art of that period on mainland Spain
This book features every single miniature from the codex together with their iconographic and stylistic analysis.
The Girona Beatus showcases an extraordinary and complex iconographical variety. The elements compiled from different backgrounds, particularly those of classical Carolingian and Muslim origin, and the almost completely original new subject matter incorporated for the first time, make one wonder how all this was possible in Tabara monastery in 975. What library endowed with illuminated manuscripts did the artists have access to? It must also be said that without the artists’ imagination and their ability to use, manipulate and transform the material received – something we often and almost always rightly deny them – the outcome would have been very different.
What makes this manuscript unique is the vast number of additional illustrations it contains in comparison to previous Beatus. It begins with a Cross and a Maiestas, followed by a vision of heaven having no known, extant precedents, and continues with six miniatures of the Evangelists. It also features genealogies which extend throughout a remarkable cycle of the life and death of Jesus Christ, a cycle found in no other codex and rather uncommon in the art of that period on mainland Spain
This book features every single miniature from the codex together with their iconographic and stylistic analysis.
Format: 240 x 340 mm
Pages: 336
Illustrations: 334
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-84-88526-85-4
CONTENTS:
From the editor to the reader
Considerations on the Gerona Beatus
Gabriel Roura i Güibas (?) (Chairman of the Gerona Cathedral Chapter and Capitular Archivist)
An iconographic and stylistic analysis of the Gerona Beatus
Carlos Miranda García-Tejedor (Doctor in History)
Bibliography
