Add MS 38121

Contents:

ff. 1r-2v: 'Picture-book' of the life of St John the Evangelist.

f. 3r: Preface of Jerome followed by a table of contents. Rubric: 'Incipit prefatio Sancti Iheronimi presbitri (sic), in Apocalipsi Sancti Johannis'. Beginning: 'Johannes, apostolus et evangelista, a Domino Christo electus atque dilectus in tanto amore dilectionis ab eo est habitus'. Ending: 'Et Deo magisterii doctrina servetur'.

ff. 4r-22r: Apocalypse. Rubric. "Incipit Apokalipsis Johannis'. Beginning: 'Apocalipsis Ihesu Cristi quam dedit illi Deus palam facere servis suis que oportet fieri cito'. Ending: 'Veni Domine Ihesu. Gratia Domini Nostri cum omnibus vobis. Amen'.

Decoration:

The iconographical cycle is close to 13th-century English picture-book Apocalypses such as New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 524 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. MS D.IV.17.

Add MS 38121 is a forerunner of Apocalypse block-books (see Frances Carey, The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come, 1999, pp. 88-89; 127-28). The layout and subjects of the miniatures are closely related to that of two other Southern Netherlandish manuscripts, believed to have been copied from the same English exemplar, Manchester, John Rylands Library Lat MS 19 and London, Welcome Institute, MS 49 (formerly in the Sneyd collection). The manuscript is also related to Add MS 19896 and an early block-book of the Apocalypse, made in the Netherlands in the 15th century, and is derived from the same or a similar exemplar (see James, Apocalypse in Art (1927), pp. 47-48).

4 full page miniatures (ff. 3v, 4v, 5v, 6v) and 90 half-page miniatures, two on each folio (ff. 1-2v) and on versos only (ff. 7v-47v), in colours with gold on gold or diapered grounds. A puzzle initial in red and blue with pen-flourishing (f. 4). Rubrics in red ink.

The images on ff. 1-2v and ff. 45v-47v illustrate scenes from the life of St John the Evangelist; the remaining folios illustrates the Apocalypse (the book of Revelation). The text ends on f. 22r and thereafter the rectos are blank, though the miniatures continue on the versos.

The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:

f. 1r: John and the idolaters (above); John baptising Drusiana (below).

f. 1v: John debating with the idolaters (above); John is sent in a boat to Rome (below).

f. 2r: John before Emperor Domitian (above); John in a cauldron of boiling oil (below).

f. 2v: John is sent by Domitian to Patmos (above); he sails to the island in a boat (below).

f. 3v: John is visited by an angel on Patmos; two sailors on a boat at sea.

f. 4v: The seven churches (above) and the vision of Christ with the sword and the seven candlesticks (below) (Revelation 1 and 2).

f. 5v: John with an angel pointing to God in a mandorla, surrounded by the 4 Evangelists' symbols and 22 elders (representing the 24), some playing musical instruments (Revelation 4).

f. 6v: The giving of the Book to the Lamb with angels, elders, the four living creatures and kings (Revelation 5).

f. 7v: The White Horseman with bow and arrow and the man (above); the Red Horseman with a sword and the lion (below) (Revelation 6).

f. 8v: The Black Horseman with scales and the ox (above); the Pale Horseman emerging from a hell mouth with fire and the eagle (below) (Revelation 6).

f. 9v: John with a temple and angels (above) and the earthquake, with people buried in the earth (below) (Revelation 6).

f. 10v: John and the four angels with a ship in a mandorla (above); a vision of Heaven with angels, kings and martyrs worshipping the Lord and the Lamb (below) (Revelation 7).

f. 11v: John and the seven angels hold trumpets (above); (Revelation 8); an angel with a censer sets fire to a building (below) Revelation 8).

f. 12v: An angel with a trumpet pours fire on the earth and another angel blows a trumpet (above); two angels blow trumpets and there is fire on the sea and a star falls from heaven (below) Revelation 9).

f. 13v: An angel blows his trumpet at the sun and moon (above); an angel blows his trumpet at the seat of the Beast while a star and a key fall (Revelation 9).

f. 14v: Abbadon and the locusts ride to destroy the people (above); the sixth angel blows his trumpet and the four angels of the Euphrates (as knights in armour) are released (Revelation 9).

f. 15v: The locusts kill the people (above); an angel instructs John to write in a book and the seven thunders roar (below) Revelation 9).

f. 16v: The angel wrapped in a cloud with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land (above); two witnesses with their names, Enoch and Elyas in banners, proclaim God’s message, watched by two armed men (below) (Revelation 10, 11);

f. 17v: The two witnesses are beheaded by soldiers of the Antichrist (above); the persecution of the faithful, and a man cuts down an olive tree (below) (Revelation 11).

f. 18v: The Antichrist is on the throne and people celebrate and give gifts (above); a kneeling bearded man looks through a window in a city wall at people dying and devils in the city (below) (Revelation 11).

f. 19v: The seventh trumpet: Christ is proclaimed by the kneeling 24 elders (above) and the Temple is opened in Heaven, with angels with censers on either side (below) (Revelation 11).

f. 20v: The Woman clothed with the sun saving her child from the dragon with seven heads (above) and the angels attacking the dragon (below) (Revelation 12).

f. 21v: Two angels hold a sign with writing on it (above); St Michael and angels defeat the Dragon (below) (Revelation 12).

f. 22v: The Woman is given wings and flies away to the desert where there are wild animals(above) and the Dragon with seven heads attacks her; beside her is a tree with a nest of birds and a ram (below);

f. 23v: The dragon attacks the saints or descendants of the Woman (above); the beast with seven heads comes out of the sea (below) (Revelation 12, 13);

f. 24v: The Dragon gives power to the Beast (above) and people worship the Beast (below) (Revelation 13);

f. 25v: People worship the Dragon (above) and the Dragon tramples on the saints in armour (below) (Revelation 13).

f. 26v: The False Prophet as a beast with two horns and a group of people adoring the Dragon (above); the False Prophet forces the people to worship the dragon and those who do not are killed (below) (Revelation 13).

f. 27v: The False Prophet is seated on a throne and the people show the sign of the Beast on their hands (above); The Lamb stands on Mount Zion and the 144,000 people, the 4 living creatures and the elders worship him (below) (Revelation 13, 14).

f. 28v: An angel brings good news to the people (above); an angel proclaims the fall of Babylon (below) (Revelation 14).

f. 29v: The harvest of the Earth, represented by wheat being cut with a scythe (above) and the vintage, with the picking of grapes, the pressing and the wine chalice on the altar, with horses in a stable (below) (Revelation 14).

f. 30v: John and the seven angels hold vials (above) and the seven harpers (below) (Revelation 15).

f. 31v: A beast with angels’ wings gives vials to six angels (above) and the first vial poured on the Earth causing plague (below).

f. 32v: The second angel pours out his vial on the sea and the third angel pours out his vial on the rivers and springs (above); an angel talks to John and holds a vial and another stands at an altar with a chalice(Revelation 16).

f. 33v: The fourth angel pours out his vial on the sun and scorches men with fire (above) and the fifth angel pours out his vial on the seat of the Beast and the Wicked who are gnawing their tongues in pain (Revelation 16).

f. 34v: The sixth angel pours out his vial on the Euphrates River, with the Beast, the Dragon and the False Prophet watching; the seventh angel pours out his vial destroying the city and causing an earthquake and fire on earth (Revelation 16).

f. 35v: The Whore of Babylon is seated on the waters (above) and rides on the Beast (below) (Revelation 17).

f. 36v: The city of Babylon has been destroyed (above) and an angel casts the millstone into the sea (Revelation 18).

f. 37v: Angels rejoicing in heaven, while the Whore of Babylon is cast into the pit (above) and the marriage feast of the Lamb (below) (Revelation 19).

f. 38v: The angel addresses John (above); a figure with a sword and a halo emerges from the fire and the Rider on the White Horse in a robe sprinkled with blood with a sword in his mouth leads an army; (below) (Revelation 19).

f. 39v: The birds devour the flesh of the dead (above); the Rider on the White Horse fights the army of the Beast and wounds the Beast.

f. 40v: The army of the faithful watch as birds attack the Beast and the False Prophet who are chased into a hell mouth (above) and John rejoices as the angels lead the dragon into the hell mouth (below).

f. 41v: The Faithful and the Dead arise (above); the dragon arises from the earth to attack the Holy City (below) (Revelation 20).

f. 42v: A hell-mouth with a devil tormenting souls (above) and the Lord showing them to John (below)

f. 43v: The New Jerusalem coming down from God (above) and John and the angel holding a vessel towards the Holy City (below) (Revelation 21).

f. 44v: The glory of God shines on the Holy City (above); the Angel shows John the Lord in Heaven (below) (Revelation 22).

f. 45v: John teaching (above) and raising Drusiana from the dead (below).

f. 46v: John and Crato with the jewels (above); John destroying the Temple of Diana (below).

f. 47v: John drinking poison following Aristodemus' threat, and the hand of God coming down to save him while the two criminals are dying (above); John at an altar and John in his tomb with his soul lifted to heaven (below).

Paper interleaves have been added between the folios.