The Morgan Beatus

Created in the early 10th century by a monk named Maius, the Morgan Beatus is an illuminated manuscript based on the Commentary on the Apocalypse by St. Beatus of Liébana. The book contains religious scenes, and was written in the scriptorium of the Monastery of San Miguel de Escalada in León, Spain.

The Morgan Beatus utilizes the Visigothic miniscule script, which derived from a cursive Roman script that was primarily used for administrative writing. This Roman script spread across Europe, before widely being wiped out by Charlemagne and replaced with the more accessible, easy-to-read, and standardized Carolingian miniscule in the early 9th century. 

However, the (limited) use of Visigothic miniscule and other scripts that descended from Roman cursive continued in areas far from the influence of Charlemagne's empire, including parts of Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Even over a century after the widespread adoption of the Carolingian script, the Morgan Beatus was written in the uncommon, artful Visigothic miniscule. 

As a side note, this manuscript also exemplifies and was an early example of Mozarabic art, which formed in Northern Spain from the cultural intersection of Christian and Muslim art. Many of the book's illustrations feature non-local colors and unique artistic conventions that were not often seen in other illuminated texts.