Image, Polemic, and Salvation: Modes of Manifestation in the Morgan Beatus

Abstract

The Morgan Beatus, arguably Spain's greatest contribution to medieval illuminated manuscripts, contains several textual and illustrative examples anomalous to other Beatus manuscripts.Considering Augustinian concepts of will and medieval ways of mnemonically using images to represent and remember concepts, I argue that the Morgan Beatus utilized these anomalies to manifest the divine. Moreover, the polemical nature of the work, along with its original purpose as a source of spiritual meditation, suggests that divine manifestation was a way of ensuring salvation in the face of the perceived coming Apocalypse. Correspondingly, I suggest that the need for salvation in relation to the Apocalypse prompted Maius, the scribe of the Morgan Beatus, to include himself in the textual program. Therefore, more than a source of spiritual meditation, the Morgan Beatus becomes, in the words of Mary Carruthers, a "machine of salvation.