The English Gothic illuminated Apocalypse, lectio divina, and the art of memory

Abstract

Among the books of Scripture the Apocalypse is uniquely composed of visions personally experienced and described by its author. St John, each signalled by ‘I saw’ or ‘in my vision, I heard’. Its cataclysmic horrors and ecstatic glimpses of celestial majesty do not ‘happen’ or ‘unfold’, as in the scriptural narratives of Genesis or the Gospels. Described in vivid, often metaphorical language by a seer-author—poet, they ‘appear’ as they are seen and heard in visions and dreams. The narrative flows without plot, outside the boundaries of operative causes, for its ‘events’ lie beyond time. The manuscript illustrations created for the Book of Revelation reveal a special character that persists to the end of the Middle Ages. Unlike other illuminated biblical texts, the Apocalypse offers a literal transformation of narrative discourse into an extended cycle of pictures representing every episode, moment, and gesture. Instead of retelling stories in pictures, however, the images authenticate the experience of the text and transfer the reading of words to another level of experience, while at the same time creating an experiential framework within which the text can be understood.