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The Tábara Beatus or Beatus of Tábara is a 10th-century illuminated manuscript, containing the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana. It originated in the San Salvador de Tábara Monastery and is now held in Spain's National Historical Archive in Madrid under the catalogue number L.1097B. Only eight of its original hundred miniatures survive.

History
The place of origin was in the valley of Liebana[1], it's uniqueness therefore makes it one of most fascinating periods of medieval history. It was a region that barely had any connection to the Roman culture. During the period of almost half a millennium, the structure of the sixty seven Apocalyptic[2] essentially existed without change. Until the tenth century, there was a change in the Apocalyptic core,[3]this shift enhanced the importance of the illumination.

A colophon on folio 167 of the manuscript states it was completed by a scribe called Emeterius on 29 July 970 in the scriptorium of the San Salvador Monastery in Tábara. Its copyist was a monk called Monnius and its illumination was by one Magius, who could be the same man as Maius, who illuminated the Morgan Beatus but died halfway through producing the Tábara Beatus. It was copied from an unknown 10th century manuscript from the province of Leon.[4]

When it was restored a hypothesis arose that the present manuscript is the result of binding one two-folio work with two folios from another Beatus manuscript, with that other manuscript forming folios 167 and 168 of the work as it stands today, which have been cut, possibly to make larger folios fit into the new codex. This hypothesis is not universally accepted and John Williams argues that all the work's folios belong to the same manuscript.[5]

One of the manuscript's later owners was Ramón Alvarez de la Braña, a librarian in Leon, from which it entered the collection of the School of Diplomacy in Madrid and then its present home.[4]

Description

This illustrated manuscript includes one hundred-eighty-four folios of images of different scenes from the Apocalypse. It is bound and made of vellum, at the size about 520 by 370 mm. [6] I Its text is written in two columns in Visigothic minuscule. Glosses in Arabic are noted in the margins, showing that the monastery which produced and used it contained Mozarabic monks. It also contains large decorative capitals.[7] It belongs to the same group of Beatus manuscripts as the Gerona Beatus and Morgan Beatus and originated in the same scriptorium.[5]

Illustrated Commentary

The illustrated manuscript includes one hundred and eight images.[8] Sixty-eight of them are based on the story of the Apocalypse and followed by the Storiae. Seven of the illustrations are based on the writing from the Commentary: The Map of the World, the Apostles, the Four Beasts and the Statue, the Woman on the Beast, the Arch of Noah, the Palm, and the Fox and Cock. Added to these seven are eight miniatures of the Evangelists and their Gospels. There is a consensus among historians that the invention of illustrations pre-dated Beatus and used by another colleague.

The Killing of the two Witnesses

The Killing of the two Witnesses[9] illustration has information borrowed from Explanatio used by Beatus. The scene in which the city is under siege is not a part of the Apocalypse story, but possibly influenced by the Commentary’s citation of Luke 21:24 “the city of Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentile’s, until the times of the nation be fulfilled.” The illustration itself is divided into two sections, in the top section there are six figures placed into a triangular format surrounded by three figures on the right and left attempting to pierce the column structure that is protecting them. In the bottom section, there are two figures to the right, one without a head, one with a head about to be chopped off, to the left there is a figure in the pose before the moment of decapitation, and further to the left there are three other figures with spears and shields all facing the action.

Tábara Tower

The illustration of the tower is a building of five floors with two bell towers, four ladders, in the illustration there are two monks working on manuscripts, one cutting, one monk ringing the bell from the very bottom floor, and three moving up and down the ladder. The illustration is based on a real tower located in Spain, in a mountain area with only about 800 people. [10]

Christ in Majesty

This illustration has Christ sitting in an imposing position, on a throne, as he returned he is holding a book with the inscription: "I am Alpha and Omega". [11] His mandorla has support from all four quadrants by angels, which are evangelists in anthropomorphic form. [12] Each of the four have a scroll with an inscription of his name. The four figures represent the living creatures of the Apocalypse: the eagle: John, the ox: Luke, and the lion: Mark.

Evangelist Mark With Witness and Two Angels Holding His Gospel

This illustration is a double pager, with portraits of the evangelists. [13] Mark is on the left side of the illustration, in front of a sitting figure, Christ. There is a rounded figure at the top which is a lion, the symbol for Mark. [14] On the other page, there are two angels holding Mark's Gospel. [15] And above in the circular shape is also a lion, but it has changed it's form having a human's head. [16]

Map of the World

The placed to reflect the text of the mission of the Apostles in the Prologue of Book II.[17] Within the text, there is reference to an image, and it has always been believed that the first Beatus included a map that spans almost two pages. It has an oval shape and surrounds the heads of the Apostles at their burial site, the map of Osma has been the best model for maps like these. If it can be proven that Beatus’s map fills up two pages then it is one of the largest scale of early medieval maps to stand the test of time. Asia is at the top, Europe to the left and Africa to the right at the bottom. This map used a Late-Roman map as a blueprint. There is also an addition by Isidore, an inscription taking from Etymologies XIV, v, 7 to the 4th, this part of the world to the right is the southern part of Beatus’s map. To the right, there is an illustration of the ‘shadow-footed’ believed to represent the African area of the world.