The Morgan Beatus

The Morgan Beatus, also called the Las Huelgas Apocalypse, is a 10th-century illuminated manuscript signed by an artist who called himself Magius. The text is one beloved of an extreme sort of medieval artist, the Commentary on the Book of the Apocalypse by the eighth-century Spanish monk Beatus. It probably comes from Spain, the earliest surviving example of a whole series of amazing apocalyptic manuscripts from Iberia.

The opening of the Sixth Seal:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.

The beasts of the four evangelists.

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

The Lamb's Companions, which pleases me to an absurd degree because this illustration had no title and I figured it out by reading and translating that text:

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

Actually it says "and with him an hundred forty and four thousand with harps," which elides the line above with the next one:

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.

Interesting idea this Spanish monk had about harps. I suppose the word "cithara" had come to mean "stringed instrument," so here we have the 144,000 Righteous Guitarists.

The Angels of the Four Winds.

The Ascension of the Two Witnesses. If you've never read the Apocalypse of John I recommend taking a look at it. It's not very long and you will see where a long list of famous Christian tropes came from, like the Four Horsemen and the Seven Seals and the 144,000 Righteous. But do not, repeat, DO NOT try to figure out what it means. For that way lies madness. Just skim and think of it as strange poetry.