Beatus of Liébana

Santo Toribio de Liébana Monastery

The four horsemen of the apocalypse, illustration in the Beatus Apocalypses of the Valladolid monastery

Beatus von Liébana (* unknown; † after 798 ) was a monk and theologian.

life and work

Beatus belonged to the convent of San Martin de Turieno in the Liébana valley in the Kingdom of Asturias . The monastery today bears the patronage of Santo Toribio de Liébana and is located in the autonomous community of Cantabria in the Picos de Europa area in northern Spain.

Brother Beatus was the spokesman of the opponents of Adoptionism of Elipandus of Toledo , and corresponded with Alcuin . He is best known for his main work, a commentary on the biblical apocalypse in twelve books (around 776 ), which is a katene . The text is preserved in 34 manuscripts and fragments from the 9th to 16th centuries. The illustrated manuscripts are also called Beatus . Beatus' motivation for the commentary on the apocalypses was the last judgment expected in the year 800.

Part of the work on the Apocalypse, which are located in Spain and Portugal, was in 2015 by the UNESCO for World Soundtrack Awards explained.

literature

Peter K. Klein : Beatus von Liébana . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 1746 f.
Wilhelm Bousset : The successors of Ticonius - Beatus . In: The Revelation of John , 6th edition, Göttingen 1906, pp. 68–69.
M. Mentré: Spanish illumination of the Middle Ages. Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-89500-196-1 .
Brigitte English: Ordo orbis terrae. The worldview in the Mappae mundi of the early and high Middle Ages. Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-003635-4 , p. 171 ff.

Web links

Commons : Beatus manuscripts - collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Liebanensis Beatus in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

^ The Manuscripts of the Commentary to the Apocalypse (Beatus of Liébana) in the Iberian Tradition. UNESCO Memory of the World, accessed September 1, 2017 .

personal data
SURNAME	Beatus of Liébana
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Spanish monk and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH	before 776
DATE OF DEATH	after 798

[1] The Manuscripts of the Commentary to the Apocalypse (Beatus of Liébana) in the Iberian Tradition. UNESCO Memory of the World, accessed September 1, 2017 .