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The Beatos

The Beatos are manuscripts from the 10th and 11th centuries, more or less illustrated, which contain a copy of the Revelation of Saint John together with the Commentary about that text that was written by the monk Beato in the VIII century. He wrote the Commentary about the Revelation of Saint John in the year 776. Ten years afterwards, in the year 786, he wrote the definite version. The phenomenon of the codices which contain the “Commentary on the Apocalypse” by Beato de Liebana is unique in the Spanish High Middle Ages. This was the most frequently copied piece of work; more than 25 manuscripts have come to the present, apart from some parts of other works that have been being discovered till now; these are more than a dozen.

This phenomenon cannot be explained by means of the text of the main work that these works contain, but by means of its illustrations which show a remarkable pictorial uniformity, contrary to what happens in the Bibles and Gospels, where their illuminations are not repeated. The result is an original summary of records and traditions including many elements from the Western world and a conception of the world which dates back to the Byzantine VI century, when the East and the Iberian Pensinsula enjoyed a harmonious relationship.


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