Lute
A lute is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity with a sound hole or opening in the body. More the term "lute" can refer to an instrument from the family of European lutes; the term refers to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the sound table. The strings are attached to pegs or posts at the end of the neck, which have some type of turning mechanism to enable the player to tighten the tension on the string or loosen the tension before playing, so that each string is tuned to a specific pitch; the lute is plucked or strummed with one hand while the other hand "frets" the strings on the neck's fingerboard. By pressing the strings on different places of the fingerboard, the player can shorten or lengthen the part of the string, vibrating, thus producing higher or lower pitches; the European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud descend from a common ancestor via diverging evolutionary paths. The lute is used in a great variety of instrumental music from the Medieval to the late Baroque eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in the Renaissance.
During the Baroque music era, the lute was used as one of the instruments which played the basso continuo accompaniment parts. It is an accompanying instrument in vocal works; the lute player either improvises a chordal accompaniment based on the figured bass part, or plays a written-out accompaniment. As a small instrument, the lute produces a quiet sound; the player of a lute is called a lutenist, lutanist or lutist, a maker of lutes is referred to as a luthier. The words lute and oud derive from Arabic al-ʿoud, it may refer to the wooden plectrum traditionally used for playing the oud, to the thin strips of wood used for the back, or to the wooden soundboard that distinguished it from similar instruments with skin-faced bodies. Many theories have been proposed for the origin of the Arabic name. A music scholar by the name of Eckhard Neubauer suggested that oud may be an Arabic borrowing from the Persian word rōd or rūd, which meant string. Another researcher, archaeomusicologist Richard J. Dumbrill, suggests that rud came from the Sanskrit rudrī and transferred to Arabic and European languages by way of a Semitic language.
However, another theory according to Semitic language scholars, is that the Arabic ʿoud is derived from Syriac ʿoud-a, meaning "wooden stick" and "burning wood"—cognate to Biblical Hebrew'ūḏ, referring to a stick used to stir logs in a fire. Henry George Farmer notes the similarity between al-ʿawda. Lutes are made entirely of wood; the soundboard is a teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood. In all lutes the soundboard has a single decorated sound hole under the strings called; the sound hole is not open, but rather covered with a grille in the form of an intertwining vine or a decorative knot, carved directly out of the wood of the soundboard. The geometry of the lute soundboard is complex, involving a system of barring that places braces perpendicular to the strings at specific lengths along the overall length of the belly, the ends of which are angled to abut the ribs on either side for structural reasons. Robert Lundberg, in his book Historical Lute Construction, suggests ancient builders placed bars according to whole-number ratios of the scale length and belly length.
He further suggests the inward bend of the soundboard is a deliberate adaptation by ancient builders to afford the lutenist's right hand more space between the strings and soundboard. Soundboard thickness varies, but hovers between 1.5 and 2 mm. Some luthiers tune the belly as they build, removing mass and adapting bracing to produce desirable sonic results; the lute belly is never finished, but in some cases the luthier may size the top with a thin coat of shellac or glair to help keep it clean. The belly joins directly to the rib, without a lining glued to the sides, a cap and counter cap are glued to the inside and outside of the bottom end of the bowl to provide rigidity and increased gluing surface. After joining the top to the sides, a half-binding is installed around the edge of the soundboard; the half-binding is half the thickness of the soundboard and is made of a contrasting color wood. The rebate for the half-binding must be precise to avoid compromising structural integrity; the back or the shell is assembled from thin strips of hardwood called ribs, joined edge to edge to form a deep rounded body for the instrument.
There are braces inside on the soundboard to give it strength. The neck is made of light wood, with a veneer of hardwood to provide durability for the fretboard beneath the strings. Unlike most modern stringed instruments, the lute's fretboard is mounted flush with the top; the pegbox for lutes before the Baroque era was angled back from the neck at 90° to help hold the low-tension strings against the nut which, traditionally, is not glued in place but is held in place by string pressure only. The tuning pegs are simple pegs of hardwood, somewhat tapered, that are held in place by friction in holes drilled through the pegbox; as with other instru
Kahlil Gibran (sculptor)
Kahlil G. Gibran, sometimes known as "Kahlil George Gibran", was a Lebanese American painter and sculptor from Boston, Massachusetts. A student of the painter Karl Zerbe at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Gibran first received acclaim as a magic realist painter in the late 1940s when he exhibited with other emerging artists known as the "Boston Expressionists". Called a "master of materials", as both artist and restorer, Gibran turned to sculpture in the mid-fifties. In 1972, in an effort to separate his identity from his famous relative and namesake, the author of The Prophet, Gibran Kahlil Gibran, cousin both to his father Nicholas Gibran and his mother Rose Gibran, the sculptor co-authored with his wife Jean a biography of the poet entitled Kahlil Gibran His Life And World. Gibran is known including painting. Gibran aspired to be an artist; the third of five children, he was inspired by his namesake cousin and godfather, the poet Gibran Kahlil Gibran. Related to the author on both sides of his family, he was nurtured by his Lebanese immigrant family in Boston.
Gibran spent hours in his father's woodworking workshop. From his cabinet-maker father, he learned about instrument making and helped fashion stringed instruments, including a miniature violin that he treasured all his life. Gibran lived in what is now Chinatown and attended local public schools; as a boy, he frequented the Denison House where he would see social worker Amelia Earhart drive up in her famous yellow roadster. He visited the local public library and enjoyed crafting exotic objects like the scimitar in Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum or the guillotine from Tale of Two Cities. At eleven, he received Honorable Mention in a national soap-carving contest, during his senior year at English High School, was awarded the Lawrence Prize for Art. Gibran entered the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1940, he was offered a full scholarship. However, he chose a partial scholarship given by the painting department where he studied with Karl Zerbe; the experience shaped his career.
“It was an atelier", he recalled. “They let us develop our own vision while grounding us in the fundamentals – drawing, anatomy and materials". Winner of The Boit Summer Competition in 1942, the young artist soon was recognized as a master of diverse materials, he was known as jittery Gibran for prodigious production fueled by an abundance of nervous energy and for his deep concern that he not be a burden to his family. In 1943, shortly after his study for a mural Entrée á Paradis was awarded the Karl Zerbe prize, he left school in order to apprentice at several craft-related organizations. For a period during World War II, he served as draftsman at Harvard's Underwater Sound Laboratory, his carving skills led him to work for Martin Heiligmann, a gilder of fine objects and frames. Finding a Joy Street studio on Beacon Hill, he started to work for Boris Mirski whose Charles Street Gallery was attracting Boston artists and collectors. Word of the young artist's talent spread, Gibran honed his skills at the Conservation Laboratory of Harvard University's Fogg Museum.
He located a studio at 15 Fayette Street in Boston's Bay Village, where he settled in as a freelancer and repairing fine art objects during the day, painting at night. Shortly after moving, he met sculptor and conservator Morton C. Bradley; the two would maintain a lifelong friendship. Gibran first displayed original creative work at Boris Mirski's Charles Street Gallery in 1944. A January 1946 review of his pictures at the Stuart Art Gallery, introduced him to Boston's art world: “Mr. Gibran is in his early twenties.... He is a mystic and seeks a symbolism which can convey transcendent ideas... a romantic of the artistic clan of Redon. In another Stuart Art Gallery exhibit, Study of a Head by Kahlil Gibran was described as “the tenuous enterprise of another young Boston mystic". Soon his paintings appeared at Symphony Hall, along with panels by his mentor Karl Zerbe in a selection of work by contemporary artists titled Fantasy in Art. One reviewer wrote: “There are among these fantasts, visionary artists who perceive images in tenuous dreamlike mists...
The portrait for example by Kahlil Gibran". By June 1947, a New York Times review of paintings he exhibited at Jacques Seligmann's gallery in the group show, Artists Under 25, acknowledged his efforts with the brief but laudatory comment, “Kahlil Gibran works subtly and in encaustic". Five months Boston's Institute of Modern Art featured works “carefully chosen from the recent production of notable artists in Massachusetts". Exhibitors included Karl Knaths, Edward Hopper and Edwin Dickinson along with younger Boston artists. ART news published a John Brook portrait of eleven Boston painters including Karl Zerbe, Reed Champion, Ture Bengtz, Giglio Dante, Maud Morgan, Lawrence Kupferman; the photograph shows a serious and pensive Gibran in profile seated on a ladder near the painter Esther Geller. In her review of this seminal show, Dorothy Adlow, wrote in the Christian Science Monitor: “Kahlil Gibran, who like Mr. David Aronson is 24 years old, paints a Pietà in oil with remarkable technical adaptation of pigment".
And when the Pietà was exhibited in a March, 1948 Artists’ Equity show, this critic heralded it as “one of the more distinguished pictures painted in Boston in recent years". Within a year, his identity as a “visionary” with great technique was spreadin
Luis de Narváez
Luis de Narváez was a Spanish composer and vihuelist. Regarded during his lifetime, Narváez is known today for Los seys libros del delphín, a collection of polyphonic music for the vihuela which includes the earliest known variation sets, he is notable for being the earliest composer for vihuela to adapt the contemporary Italian style of lute music. The exact date or year of Narváez's birth is unknown, he was born in Granada and the earliest surviving references to him indicate that as early as 1526 he was a member of the household of Francisco de los Cobos y Molina, a well-known and successful patron of the arts, the Secretary of State and commentator for the kingdom of Castile under Charles V. Narváez lived in Valladolid with his patron until the latter's death in 1547, although he was working for the Duke of Medina Sidonia between 1539 and 1540, it was during this period that the composer published Los seys librosdel delphín, a large collection of music. By 1548 Narváez was employed as musician of the royal chapel, where he taught music to choristers.
His colleagues there included the famous keyboard composer Antonio de Cabezón. Narváez and Cabezón were both employed as musicians for Felipe, Regent of Spain, accompanied him on his many journeys; the last reference to Narváez is from one such journey: during the winter of 1549 he resided in the Low Countries. Narváez was highly regarded during his lifetime for his vihuela playing, his son Andrés became an accomplished vihuelist. Narváez's most important surviving music is contained in Los seys libros del Delphin de música de cifras para tañer vihuela, a six-volume collection of music for vihuela; the collection begins with a preface, in which the composer dedicates the work to his patron Francisco de los Cobos. A short text on notation follows the table of contents and an errata sheet; the first two volumes contain fourteen polyphonic fantasias, modelled after Italian pieces of the same kind. They are characterized by competent imitative writing in two and three voices. Narváez resorts to using short motifs with identical left hand fingerings reflecting the techniques he used for improvisation.
The music reflects the influence of Francesco da Milano. The third volume of the collection is dedicated to intabulations of works by other composers: selections from masses by Josquin des Prez, the famous song Mille Regretz by the same composer, two songs by Nicolas Gombert and one by Jean Richafort; the second of the two songs is wrongly attributed to Gombert, it is a work of Jean Courtois. The intabulations are without any particular distinguishing features. Volumes four to six have mixed content; the most important pieces are Narváez's six diferencias, or variations, the earliest known examples of the form. Narváez's models include both sacred and secular melodies, the music stands out by virtue of a wide palette of techniques. Apart from melodic variations, there are two sets on ostinato harmonies: Guardame las vacas and Conde claros, both in volume six; the remaining music comprises villancicos, a Baxa de contrapunto. With the exception of two motets, no other music by Narváez survives, although he must have composed a substantial amount of vocal music.
The following is a list of pieces found in Los seys libros del delphín, following the original order. Roman numerals in parentheses are provided for convenience only. Volume 1 Fantasia del primer tono por gesolreut Fantasia del segundo tono Fantasia del tercer tono Fantasia del quarto tono Fantasia del quinto tono de consonancia Fantasia del sesto tono sobre fa ut mi re Fantasia del setimo tono sobre ut re mi fa mi Fantasia del octavo tono Volume 2: Ay en el fantasias por algunos tonos que no son tan dificultosas de tañer como las del primer libro Fantasia del primer tono Fantasia del quarto tono Fantasia del quinto tono Fantasia del quinto tono Fantasia del primer tono Fantasia del primer tono Volume 3: Ay en el obras compuestas de Josquin y canciones Francesas de diversos autores Sanctus de la misa de Ercules dux de josquin—Ossanna de la misma missa Sanctus de josquin de la misa de faissan regres—Ossanna de la misma missa Cum sancto spiritu de la missa de la fuga de josquin Mille regres.
La canción del Emperador del quarto tono de Jusquin Cancion de Nicolas Gombert del quinto tono Otra cancion del primer tono Je veulx laysser melancolie Volume 4: y en el diferencias de contrapuntos sobre el igno de nuestra Señora O gloriosa domina, y de Pange lingua y Sacris solenniis O gloriosa domina Sacris solenniis Volume 5: Ay en el romances y villancicos para tañer y cantar y contrapunctos sobre algunos villancicos Ya se asienta el rey Ramiro Paseavase el rey Moro Si tantos halcones Y la mi cinta dorada La bella mal maridada Con que la lavare Ay arde coraçon Volume 6: Ay en el veynte y dos diferencias de Conde claros para discantar y
Spain
Spain the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located in Europe. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula, its territory includes two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera make Spain the only European country to have a physical border with an African country. Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are part of Spanish territory; the country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar. With an area of 505,990 km2, Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, the fourth largest country in the European continent. By population, Spain is the fifth in the European Union. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named Hispania, based on the earlier Phoenician name Spn or Spania.
At the end of the Western Roman Empire the Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded the Iberian peninsula and established independent realms in its western provinces, including the Suebi and Vandals. The Visigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including Byzantine provinces, into the Kingdom of Toledo, which more or less unified politically and all the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was documented as Hispania. In the early eighth century the Visigothic Kingdom fell to the Moors of the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate, who arrived to rule most of the peninsula in the year 726, leaving only a handful of small Christian realms in the north and lasting up to seven centuries in the Kingdom of Granada; this led to many wars during a long reconquering period across the Iberian Peninsula, which led to the creation of the Kingdom of Leon, Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Aragon and Kingdom of Navarre as the main Christian kingdoms to face the invasion.
Following the Moorish conquest, Europeans began a gradual process of retaking the region known as the Reconquista, which by the late 15th century culminated in the emergence of Spain as a unified country under the Catholic Monarchs. Until Aragon had been an independent kingdom, which had expanded toward the eastern Mediterranean, incorporating Sicily and Naples, had competed with Genoa and Venice. In the early modern period, Spain became the world's first global empire and the most powerful country in the world, leaving a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes more than 570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. During the Golden Age there were many advancements in the arts, with world-famous painters such as Diego Velázquez; the most famous Spanish literary work, Don Quixote, was published during the Golden Age. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a parliamentary monarchy, with King Felipe VI as head of state.
It is a major developed country and a high income country, with the world's fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Eurozone, the Council of Europe, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Union for the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization and many other international organisations. While not an official member, Spain has a "Permanent Invitation" to the G20 summits, participating in every summit, which makes Spain a de facto member of the group; the origins of the Roman name Hispania, from which the modern name España was derived, are uncertain due to inadequate evidence, although it is documented that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians referred to the region as Spania, therefore the most accepted etymology is a Semitic-Phoenician one.
Down the centuries there have been a number of accounts and hypotheses: The Renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word Hispania evolved from the Iberian word Hispalis, meaning "city of the western world". Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the term span is the Phoenician word spy, meaning "to forge metals". Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean "the land where metals are forged", it may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania, meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean. The word in question means "Hyrax" due to Phoenicians confusing the two animals. Hispania may derive from the poetic use of the term Hesperia, reflecting the Greek perception of Italy as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" (Hesperia
Mexican vihuela
The Mexican vihuela is a guitar-like string instrument from 19th-century Mexico with five strings and played in mariachi groups. Although the Mexican vihuela has the same name as the historic Spanish plucked string instrument, the two are distinct; the Mexican vihuela has more in common with the Timple Canario due to both having five strings and both having vaulted backs. The Mexican vihuela is tuned to the guitar; the difference is that the open G, the D and the A strings are tuned an octave higher than a guitar thus giving it a tenor sound or a higher pitch. The gauge of the strings and the order in which they are applied is important in producing a soft sound or a punchy bold sound when the instrument is strummed; the implementation of the vihuela to a mariachi is to give a duet of sorts with the Spanish guitar, one having a low tuning while the vihuela has the higher tuning to complement each other. The optimal spot to strum this instrument is between the sound hole and the point where the fret board or neck meets the body of the instrument.
This area is where a pick guard can be installed The Mexican vihuela is a small, deep-bodied rhythm guitar built along the same lines as the guitarrón. The Mexican Vihuela is used by Mariachi groups; this instrument is strummed with all of the fingernail tips to produce a rich and clear sound of the chords being played. A finger pick on the pointer finger and or the second and third fingers, gives it a brighter and clearer sound when strummed. Many vihuela players have longer than normal fingernails on their strumming hand to facilitate their playing technique and to get a clear crystal sound; the vihuela has five nylon strings in reentrant tuning. Similar to the first five strings of a guitar, but with the third and fifth an octave above what one might expect. Tuning: A-D-G-B-E – The A, D, G are tuned one octave above a guitar. Blattman, Erica et al.. "Mariachi Embraced in Our World" Relatives of the Lute: Vihuela, some collected knowledge of The Lute Society of America, Dartmouth College Mexican music scores.
Music sheets for vihuela in the Mariachi orchestra
Early music
Early music comprises Medieval music and Renaissance music, but can include Baroque music. Early music is a broad musical era in the history of Western art music. Interpretations of historical scope of "early music" vary; the original Academy of Ancient Music formed in 1726 defined "Ancient" music as works written by composers who lived before the end of the 16th century. Johannes Brahms and his contemporaries would have understood Early music to range from the High Renaissance and Baroque, while some scholars consider that Early music should include the music of ancient Greece or Rome before 500 AD. Music critic Michael Kennedy excludes Baroque, defining Early music as "musical compositions from earliest times up to and including music of Renaissance period". Musicologist Thomas Forrest Kelly considers that the essence of Early music is the revival of "forgotten" musical repertoire and that the term is intertwined with the rediscovery of old performance practice. According to the UK's National Centre for Early Music, the term "early music" refers to both a repertory – and a informed approach to the performance of that music.
Today, the understanding of "Early music" has come to include "any music for which a appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises and other contemporary evidence." In the 20th century there was a resurgence of interest in the performance of music from the Medieval and Renaissance eras, a number of instrumental consorts and choral ensembles specialising in Early music repertoire were formed. Groups such as the Tallis scholars, the Early Music Consort and the Taverner Consort and Players have been influential in bringing Early music to modern audiences through performances and popular recordings; the revival of interest in Early music has given rise to a scholarly approach to the performance of music. Through academic musicological research of music treatises, urtext editions of musical scores and other historical evidence, performers attempt to be faithful to the performance style of the musical era in which a work was conceived. Additionally, there has been a rise in the use of original or reproduction period instruments as part of the performance of Early music, such as the revival of the harpsichord or the viol.
The practice of "historically informed performance" is dependent on stylistic inference. According to Margaret Bent, Renaissance notation is not as prescriptive as modern scoring, there is much, left to the performer's interpretation: "Renaissance notation is under-prescriptive by our standards. Accidentals … may or may not have been notated, but what modern notation requires would have been apparent without notation to a singer versed in counterpoint". Ancient music List of early music ensembles Early music festivals History of music Neo-Medieval music List of medieval composers List of Renaissance composers List of Baroque composers Davidson, Audrey Ekdahl. 2008. Aspects of Early Music and Performance. New York: AMS Press. ISBN 978-0-404-64601-1. Donington, Robert. 1989. The Interpretation of Early Music, new revised edition. London and Boston: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-15040-3. Epp and Brian E. Power. 2009. The Sounds and Sights of Performance in Early Music: Essays in Honour of Timothy J. Mcgee.
Farnham, Surrey. ISBN 978-0-7546-5483-4. Haskell, Harry. 1988. The Early Music Revival: A History. London and New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01449-3. Haynes, Bruce. 2007. The End of Early Music: A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518987-2. Judd, Cristle Collins. 1998. "Introduction: Analyzing Early Music". In Tonal Structures in Early Music, edited by Cristle Collins Judd, 3–13. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1998. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-2388-3. Kelly, Thomas Forrest. 2011. Early Music: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973076-6. Roche and Elizabeth Roche. 1981. A Dictionary of Early Music: From the Troubadours to Monteverdi. London: Faber Music in association with Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-10035-X. Sherman, Bernard. 1997. Inside Early Music: Conversations with Performers. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509708-4. Stevens, Denis.
1997. Early Music, revised edition. Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 1-871082-62-5. First published as Musicology. Early Music FAQ Renaissance Workshop Company the company which has saved many rare and some unknown instruments from extinction. Celebrating Early Music Master Orlando Gibbons Early MusiChicago – Early Music in Chicago and Beyond, with many links and resources of general interest Ancient Tunes, Young Ears: Teaching Early Music to Kids
Commentary on the Apocalypse
Commentary on the Apocalypse is a book written in the eighth century by the Spanish monk and theologian Beatus of Liébana and copied and illustrated in manuscript in works called "Beati" during the 10th and 11th Centuries a.d. It is a commentary on the New Testament Apocalypse of Book of Revelation, it refers to any manuscript copy of this work any of the 27 illuminated copies that have survived. It is referred to as the Beatus; the historical significance of the Commentary is made more pronounced since it included a world map, which offers a rare insight into the geographical understanding of the post-Roman world. Well-known copies include the Morgan, the Saint-Sever, the Gerona, the Osma and the Madrid Beatus codices. Considered together, the Beatus codices are among the most important Spanish manuscripts and have been the subject of extensive scholarly and antiquarian enquiry; the illuminated versions now represent the best known works of Mozarabic art, had some influence on the medieval art of the rest of Europe.
The work consists of several prologues and one long summary section before the first book, an introduction to the second book, 12 books of commentary, some long and some short. Beatus states in its dedication to his friend Bishop Etherius that it is meant to educate his brother monks; the work is structured around selections from previous Apocalypse commentaries and references by Ticonius, St. Primasius of Hadrumetum, St. Caesarius of Arles, St. Apringius of Beja, many others. There are long extracts from the texts of the Fathers of the Church and Doctors of the Church Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose of Milan, Irenaeus of Lyons, Pope Gregory I, Saint Jerome of Stridon, Isidore of Seville; some manuscripts add commentaries on the books of Ezekiel and Daniel by other authors, genealogical tables, the like, but these are not part of the Beatus. The creative character of the Commentary comes from Beatus' writing of a wide-ranging catena of verses from nearly every book of the Bible, quotes of patristic commentary from many little known sources, interstitial original comments by Beatus.
His attitude is one of realism about church politics and human pettiness and love towards everyday life when it is difficult, many homely similes from his own time and place. His work is a fruitful source for Spanish linguistics, as Beatus alters words in his African Latin sources to the preferred synonyms in Hispanic Latin; the Kingdom of Toledo fell in 711, leaving most of the Iberian Peninsula in the hands of Muslim conquerors. Christians under Peylayo managed to establish one kingdom on the northern coast, protected by the Cantabrian Mountains. Beautus lived in the Cantabrian valley of Liébana. With the recent conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the Apocalypse and the symbolism in it took on a different meaning; the beast, believed to represent the Roman Empire, now became the Caliphate, Babylon was no longer Rome, but Córdoba. In continuity with previous commentaries written in the Tyconian tradition, in continuity with St. Isidore of Seville and St. Apringius of Beja from just a few centuries before him, Beatus' Commentary on the Apocalypse focuses on the sinless beauty of the eternal Church, on the tares growing among the wheat in the Church on Earth.
Persecution from outside forces like pagan kings and heretics is mentioned, but it is persecution from fellow members of the Church that Beatus spends hundreds of pages. Anything critical of the Jews in the Bible is said to have contemporary effect as a criticism of Christians, of monks and other religious, a good deal of what is said about pagans is stated as meant as a criticism of Christians who worship their own interests more than God. Muslims are mentioned, except as references to Christian heresies include them. Revelation is a book about the Church's problems throughout all ages, not about history per se. In the middle of Book 4 of 12, Beatus does state his guess about the end-date of the world although he warns people that it is folly to try to guess a date that Jesus in the Bible claimed not to know. There are 35 surviving copies, 27 of which are illustrated: Beatus of Navarra.. Ca. 12th Century, 60 illuminations. Kept at Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. Ms. Nouv. Acq. Lat. 1366 Beatus of Turin.
Held at Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, Turin. J. II.1. 214 folios, 360 x 275 mm, 106 miniatures Date of creation unknown. 12th Century. Rylands Beatus: Manchester, John Rylands Library Latin MS 8), ca. 1175. Cardeña Beatus... Ca. 1180. Document split up. Accounted for folios are dispersed between collections in 1) Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid Ms. 2. 2) Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, 3) the private collection of Francisco de Zabálburu y Basabe, 4) Museu d’Art de Girona in Girona. A facsimile edition by M. Moleiro Editor has gathered them all to recreate the original volume as it was; the Museo Arqueológical Nacional reports that the Diocesan Museum of Gerona has a folio and the Collection Heredia-Spínola of Madrid has a folio
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