The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages

Richard Kenneth Emmerson, Bernard McGinn

Cornell University Press, 1992 - History - 428 pages

This richly interdisciplinary collection of seventeen essays by an impressive array of medievalists offers an overview of the influence of the Apocalypse on the shaping of the Christian culture of the Middle Ages. Each one focuses on some aspect of John's great visionary text, specifically analyzing its interpretation, representation, and manipulation in medieval culture, history, religion, art, and literature. The book is divided into three sections.

In the first part, six scholars of medieval history and thought detail the development of interpretations of the Book of Revelation from the earliest work of Tyconius and Augustine to the Franciscan and Dominican explanations of the later Middle Ages. In the second part, six art historians discuss the visual representation of the Apocalypse in medieval art from early Christian mosaics through late medieval and early Renaissance paintings and prints, including those of Albrecht Durer. Five essays by historians and literary historians in the third section focus on the wide variety of ways in which medieval literature, liturgy, and historiography were influenced by the Apocalypse.

Providing a wealth of new material, this book will enrich our understanding of some of the major themes of medieval intellectual, cultural, and religious history, and should serve as a model for future works on related topics.

Contributors: David Burr, Michael Camille, Yves Christe, E. Randolph Daniel, Richard K. Emmerson, C. Clifford Flanigan, Paula Frederiksen, Ronald B. Herzman, Dale Kinney, Peter Klein, Robert E. Lerner, Suzanne Lewis, E. Ann Matter, Bernard McGinn, Karl F. Morrison, Penn Szittya, John Williams

Contents

• Johns Apocalypse and the Apocalyptic Mentality: 3
• Tyconius and Augustine on the Apocalypse: 21
• The Apocalypse in Early Medieval Exegesis: 38
• The Medieval Return to the ThousandYear Sabbath: 51
• Patterns of History in the Apocalypse: 72
• Mendicant Readings of the Apocalypse: 89
• The Apocalypse in Medieval: 103
• The Apocalypse in Medieval: 159
• The Apocalypse in Early Christian Monumental Decoration: 200
• Purpose and Imagery in the Apocalypse Commentary: 217
• The Apocalypse in the Monumental Art of the Eleventh through: 234
• Exegesis and Illustration in ThirteenthCentury English Apocalypses: 259
• Visionary Perception and Images of the Apocalypse in the Later: 276
• The Apocalypse in Medieval Culture: 291
• The Apocalypse and the Medieval Liturgy: 333
• The Apocalypse in Some German: 352
• The Apocalypse in Medieval English: 374
• Dante and the Apocalypse: 398
• Contributors: 415
• Index of Biblical Citations: 424

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages; Cornell paperbacks; Cornell paperbacks. Medieval studies/Religion
• Editors: Richard Kenneth Emmerson, Bernard McGinn
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1992
• ISBN: 0801495504, 9780801495502
• Length: 428 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Medieval; Religion / Biblical Criticism & Interpretation / New Testament