The Abingdon Apocalypse

Miniature Representing The Power Of Rome, In 'The Abingdon Apocalypse'

This Apocalypse manuscript contains the Latin text of the biblical book of Revelation, written on versos, with a commentary in French on the facing rectos, each with a miniature. The manuscript takes its name from two added inscriptions: one states that it was given to the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary, Abingdon, by a bishop of Salisbury; the other records that it was lent by the abbot and convent of Abingdon in 1362 to Joan, wife of King David II of Scotland.

The image contains four compositions, each with a king and a bishop: three are in circles (representing cities) to the left , and one larger one is to the right. They represent the kingdoms of Assyria, Persia, Macedonia and Rome; the power of the first three has passed to the fourth.

Diagram Of Continents And Countries, In A Collection Of Chronicles Of English History And Miscellaneous Tracts

This volume consists of numerous texts of the 14th and 15th centuries; they encompass a wide variety of materials, in Latin and French, prose and verse. All but the last two items were bound together by the 15th century, when they were owned by the Carmelite Convent in London. On the right-hand half of this page are the names of the three continents ('Asie provincie', 'Affrice provincie', and 'Europe provincie'), linked by lines to the names of countries and towns, For Europe the list begins with Rome, and is followed by Calabria, Spain, Germany, Macedonia.