Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Spain

At the end of the first millennium--when many expected the world to end--the Christian communities of Spain, still dominated by Islam, experienced a profound spiritual crisis. To make sense of their predicament, they turned to The Book of Revelation by St. John the Divine, and commentaries on this work were circulated in a variety of illuminated manuscripts of extraordinary expressive power. More than twenty of these manuscripts survive, dating from between 900 and 1100, all rendered in a colorful style known as Mozarabic. Cut off from the rest of Europe and obsessed by the imminence of God's judgment, the creators of these books invented a world peopled by angelic warriors, demons and beasts, exotic birds and serpents, and luxuriant trees.