Original title Beato de Valcavado Publication date 970 Page count 230 | Illustrator Oveco Pages 230 | |
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Media type ink and illumination on parchment Similar Commentary on the Apocalypse, Glosas Emilianenses, Etymologiae, Cantigas de Santa Maria | ||
The Beato of Valcavado is a illuminated manuscript—copies of the Commentary on the Apocalypse of San Juan of Beatus of Liébana—copied by a monk called Oveco in the year 970, in the ancient monastery of Our Lady of Valcavado of the province of Palencia. It is in the collection of the Historical Library of Santa Cruz
Contents
History
In 970 under the reign of Ramiro III, in the monastery of Valcavado a monk resided, afterwards a saint, called Oveco, who copied and made miniatures of a beato in parchment leaves, at the order of his abbot Sempronio, after the original by Saint Beato in the monastery of Santo Toribio of Liébana between the years 765-775, whose copies became reproduced some 32 times.
The manuscript of Oveco, conserved in the church until the 16th century, then went to León and afterwards to Madrid, to the hands of a secretary of Felipe II of Spain. In the 17th century, it was found in the School of Jesuits of Saint Ambrosio in Valladolid, and when by order of Carlos III, the Jesuits were expelled, all the content of the library went to the University of Valladolid.
Description
The manuscript is also known as the Beato of Valladolid. It consists of 230 folios (another fourteen are missing) of 35.5 x 24.5 cm and contains in total 87 miniatures and numerous main letters conserved in good condition. The color technique made a glazed to the wax on the parchment, and with pigments of azurite, malachite and cinnabar made by means of mix of egg, honey or tail, resulting in bright colors. The figures of the characters limit his drawing with a line and his expressiveness shows in the large eyes. In the margins of many pages are numerous annotations added by the author, surely during the review of his work and others made over the centuries.
The preparation of the manuscript made in a very short term, of 8 June to 9 September 970, in the folio 3 finds, giving confirmation to these dates, this registration: "Initiatus est liber iste Apocalypse Joahnni SAW idus junius et pinibit exaratus SAW idus septembris sub was VIII".
One of the first sentences that can read in the beato is: «Hoc opus your fieret prae-dictus Abbas Sempronius instanter egit, cui ego Oveco indignus mind obediens worshipper depinxi». Also it adds the date with these words: «Anno Domini 970».
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