Thursday, May 08, 2008

Vaticinia de Pontificibus
"Miniature of a human-headed dragon, representing the papacy of Urban VI whose election was contested and resulted in the appointment of the anti-pope Clement VII."


Miniature of Pope John XXII.


Miniature of Pope Benedict XI.

"A series of manuscript prophecies concerning the Papacy, under the title of Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus, a Latin text which assembles portraits of popes and prophecies related to them, circulated from the late thirteenth-early fourteenth century, with prophecies concerning popes from Pope Nicholas III onwards.

The mystical series of prophecies, known from their incipit as the Genus nequam prophecies, are derived from the Byzantine Leo Oracles, a series of twelfth-century Byzantine prophecies that foretell a savior-emperor destined to restore unity to the empire. Their poems and tempera illuminations mix fantasy, the occult, and chronicle in a chronology of the popes. Each prophecy consists of four elements, an enigmatic allegorical text, an emblematic picture, a motto, and an attribution to a pope."
- quote source from Wikipedia.


A detailed description along with dozens more miniature paintings from this illuminated manuscript can be found in this gallery at the British Library website.

2 comments:

El Abuelito said...

Very nice blog! Up with the monsters!

Unknown said...

Hi Aeron,

If you want access to a much larger collection of these images, visit the site linked to below.

Vaticinia Nostradamus (Lost Book...) Analysis