Leaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Table of the Antichrist

Leaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Table of the Antichrist

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Illustrated Beatus manuscripts bring to life an extraordinary vision of the end of the world, as recorded by Saint John in the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) and filtered through the lens of Beatus of Liébana, an eighth-century Asturian monk. These manuscripts are unique to medieval Spain and a testament to the pervasive artistry and intellectual milieu of monastic culture there. The leaf shown here comes from a manuscript disassembled in the 1870s. This table was created in an attempt to calculate the numerical "code" of the Antichrist, who was a particularly troubling figure to Christians of the Middle Ages. Saint John asserted in Apocalypse 13.18 that the "number of the beast…is 666," the number specifically linked to the devil at the time the Apocalypse was written. Here, the eight names given to the Antichrist are lettered in red in vertical columns; each letter is assigned a number. The total given is 666, written four times diagonally in the center of the table.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Leaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Table of the AntichristLeaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Table of the AntichristLeaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Table of the AntichristLeaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Table of the AntichristLeaf from a Beatus Manuscript: Table of the Antichrist

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.