Trinity Apocalypse

The Trinity Apocalypse is an illuminated manuscript containing the Book of Revelation, a commentary on Revelation and a biographical sketch of Saint John. Produced in England around 1260, it is currently housed in Cambridge at Trinity College, for which it is named.^[1]

First page of the Trinity Apocalypse

The language of the text of the Trinity Apocalypse, including all its captions, is Anglo-Norman French.^[2] The commentary is an abridged translation of the 9th-century Latin commentary by Berengaudus.^[3] This particular abridgement is not found in any other manuscript.^[4]

The first section of the manuscript is a series of scenes from the life of Saint John with explanatory text. Revelation and a commentary follow. The final section is another series of scenes from the life of Saint John with explanatory text.^[2] There is a total of thirty scenes from the life of John.^[5] The explanatory text consists of titles, inscriptions within the pictures and a short two-paragraph text.^[6] These texts are unique and were not copied from any known source, but the legendary life of John they portray is derived ultimately from the 2nd-century Acts of John via Pseudo-Abdias and the Legenda Aurea.^[7]

In the Trinity Apocalypse, each of the Four Horsemen gets a miniature of its own,^[8] as does each blast of the Seven Trumpets.^[9]

The pictures on the final leaf of the manuscript are unfinished. They were executed a different and inferior artist.^[10]

See also

• English Apocalypse manuscripts