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The Douce Apocalypse: Picturing the End of the World in the Middle Ages
One of the finest of all medieval apocalypse manuscripts, the Douce Apocalypse was part of a series of illuminated texts that brought St. John’s apocalyptic visions to life.
Now the manuscript—created sometime between 1250 and 1275—reaches an entirely new audience at the hands of noted scholar Nigel Morgan. The Douce Apocalypse explores the manuscript’s royal patronage, looks at its fascinating imagery, and examines its significance in light of contemporary prophecy. The commentary is accompanied by lush, full-color illustrations.
As Morgan relates, the Douce Apocalypse is especially enlightening because of its unfinished nature. A few of its images remain incomplete—and such absences give insight into the artist’s painstaking techniques of drawing, gilding, and painting. The second volume in the Treasures from the Bodleian Library series, The Douce Apocalypse will convey both the beauty of the original and the enduring fascination of its contents.
Now the manuscript—created sometime between 1250 and 1275—reaches an entirely new audience at the hands of noted scholar Nigel Morgan. The Douce Apocalypse explores the manuscript’s royal patronage, looks at its fascinating imagery, and examines its significance in light of contemporary prophecy. The commentary is accompanied by lush, full-color illustrations.
As Morgan relates, the Douce Apocalypse is especially enlightening because of its unfinished nature. A few of its images remain incomplete—and such absences give insight into the artist’s painstaking techniques of drawing, gilding, and painting. The second volume in the Treasures from the Bodleian Library series, The Douce Apocalypse will convey both the beauty of the original and the enduring fascination of its contents.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2007
18 people want to read
About the author
Nigel J. Morgan
20 booksEmeritus Honorary Professor of the History of Art
Nigel Morgan is Honorary Professor of the History of Art and Head of Research of the Parker-on-the-Web Project on the medieval manuscripts of Corpus Christi College. He also collaborates with Stella Panayotova of the Fitzwilliam Museum on the catalogues of the illuminated manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the colleges of Cambridge. His main interests are in illuminated and liturgical manuscripts of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, and on stained glass of the same period. He was Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oslo 1997-2004, and since then has been Emeritus Professor - he is a specialist on Scandinavian panel painting and wood sculpture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In Cambridge he has lectured for the Part II course on English Gothic Art and Architecture 1170-1350, and has been involved in teaching and examining the MPhil course.
In his earlier career he taught at the University of East Anglia, the University of London, and for many years in Australia at La Trobe University, where he was Professor of Art History, and at the University of Melbourne, where he was Helen Macpherson Smith Professorial Fellow. He was elected as Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1994, and for several years was one of the members for Australia of the Comité International de l'Histoire de l'Art. He has also worked in the United States, as Director of the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University (1982-87), and in 2005 as Visiting Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. In 1996 he was Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
His books include the two volumes of Early Gothic Manuscripts 1190-1285 for the Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles (1982, 1988), two monographs on the Lambeth (1990) and Douce (2007) Apocalypses, and as collaborating author of the books on the Gulbenkian (2002) and Trinity (2005) Apocalypses. In the field of Scandinavian art he has been contributing author to the three volume study of the Painted Altar Frontals of Norway (2004). Iconography, liturgy, and the relationship between texts and images with particular regard to late medieval devotional art, have been his main fields of interest. He has recently co-edited and contributed chapters to the History of the Book in Britain 1100-1400 (2008), and is currently working on two books on the iconography, readership and liturgy of the medieval illustrated Psalter.
Nigel Morgan is Honorary Professor of the History of Art and Head of Research of the Parker-on-the-Web Project on the medieval manuscripts of Corpus Christi College. He also collaborates with Stella Panayotova of the Fitzwilliam Museum on the catalogues of the illuminated manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the colleges of Cambridge. His main interests are in illuminated and liturgical manuscripts of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, and on stained glass of the same period. He was Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oslo 1997-2004, and since then has been Emeritus Professor - he is a specialist on Scandinavian panel painting and wood sculpture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In Cambridge he has lectured for the Part II course on English Gothic Art and Architecture 1170-1350, and has been involved in teaching and examining the MPhil course.
In his earlier career he taught at the University of East Anglia, the University of London, and for many years in Australia at La Trobe University, where he was Professor of Art History, and at the University of Melbourne, where he was Helen Macpherson Smith Professorial Fellow. He was elected as Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1994, and for several years was one of the members for Australia of the Comité International de l'Histoire de l'Art. He has also worked in the United States, as Director of the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University (1982-87), and in 2005 as Visiting Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. In 1996 he was Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
His books include the two volumes of Early Gothic Manuscripts 1190-1285 for the Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles (1982, 1988), two monographs on the Lambeth (1990) and Douce (2007) Apocalypses, and as collaborating author of the books on the Gulbenkian (2002) and Trinity (2005) Apocalypses. In the field of Scandinavian art he has been contributing author to the three volume study of the Painted Altar Frontals of Norway (2004). Iconography, liturgy, and the relationship between texts and images with particular regard to late medieval devotional art, have been his main fields of interest. He has recently co-edited and contributed chapters to the History of the Book in Britain 1100-1400 (2008), and is currently working on two books on the iconography, readership and liturgy of the medieval illustrated Psalter.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 29, 2016
The Douce Apocalypse was an illustrated manuscript produced in 1270 for the future Edward I and his wife Eleanor of Castile, and fifty of its illustrations are reproduced with commentary in this attractive book. The original was never fully completed, apparently because when Edward (with Eleanor) set off on crusade the artists were no longer paid, and this has the benefit of showing incomplete work in progress, to give an impression of the steps by which such books were produced at the time.
It seems there was a fashion in this period for copies of the Book of Revelations and a demand for illustrations and guides because of its obscurity. Guides like the Douce Apocalypse combined selections from the Book of Revelations with selections from contemporary commentators. St Jerome suggested that every word had many meanings. The alternative view, that a text with that many meanings has no meaning whatever, is far too prosaic.
Christians from the time of st Paul have of course regarded the end of the world and the Final Judgement as something that would happen very soon - perhaps imminently. Revelations was written in response to Nero's oppression of Rome's Christians and surely expressed the distress and rage of its author arising from those dire events. Some 1200 years later, people of early middle age Europe had a strong impression that theirs was the moment in which its prophecies would come to fruition. Another 800 years further on, the prophecies remain in favour in many corners of our linked up e-world and not only are they due to be fulfilled shortly but also we have good people working hard to bring that about.
Whatever we make of all that, these illustrations are a wonder to browse through and what could be more colurful and lively a subject than the apocalypse itself, written as it was so long before Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker put pen to paper? As Coleridge observed, it is not a matter of believing so much as suspending disbelief to obtain full enjoyment.
It seems there was a fashion in this period for copies of the Book of Revelations and a demand for illustrations and guides because of its obscurity. Guides like the Douce Apocalypse combined selections from the Book of Revelations with selections from contemporary commentators. St Jerome suggested that every word had many meanings. The alternative view, that a text with that many meanings has no meaning whatever, is far too prosaic.
Christians from the time of st Paul have of course regarded the end of the world and the Final Judgement as something that would happen very soon - perhaps imminently. Revelations was written in response to Nero's oppression of Rome's Christians and surely expressed the distress and rage of its author arising from those dire events. Some 1200 years later, people of early middle age Europe had a strong impression that theirs was the moment in which its prophecies would come to fruition. Another 800 years further on, the prophecies remain in favour in many corners of our linked up e-world and not only are they due to be fulfilled shortly but also we have good people working hard to bring that about.
Whatever we make of all that, these illustrations are a wonder to browse through and what could be more colurful and lively a subject than the apocalypse itself, written as it was so long before Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker put pen to paper? As Coleridge observed, it is not a matter of believing so much as suspending disbelief to obtain full enjoyment.
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July 28, 2024c. 1254-1272 (c. 1265-1270 most likely) https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/obj...
Language:
Anglo-Norman
Latin
* translated or only commentary ???
Language:
Anglo-Norman
Latin
* translated or only commentary ???
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews