The Girona Beatus is an illuminated manuscript completed around 975 AD at the monastery of San Salvador de Tábara, a community of monks and nuns in the Kingdom of León. This work is notable as one of the few surviving copies of the Commentary on the Apocalypse, which the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana originally wrote in 776 AD. Tracey Warr, a biographer of women in the Middle Ages, writes that a woman who called herself “En, painter and helper of God” made most of its illustrations, working with a monk named Emeterius (Warr). Some sources call her “Ende,” but Therese Martin, a medieval historian at Spain’s National Research Council, and John Williams, a late art historian from the University of Pittsburgh, argue this is a misreading (Martin and Williams).
Otherwise, this manuscript shows how a book can shape a culture’s literacy by the way the text and images work together. In other words, the images make the commentary explaining the Apocalypse understandable to people who could not follow the theological jargon.
What stands out about this manuscript is that her name was recorded. After all, Martin and Williams argue that many more women probably did this work without being named. In a way, this is proof that women were always capable of the work, and that their visibility depended on when institutions began to credit and preserve their artistry. Of course, in this case, En gave herself credit, in contrast to many other women of the time who did similar work yet never had the chance to distinguish it as their own.
Martin, Therese, and John Williams. “Women’s Spaces, Real and Imagined, in the Illustrated Beatus Commentaries.” Arenal, vol. 25, no. 2, 2018, pp. 357-396, https://doi.org/10.30827/arenal.v25i2.7639.
Warr, Tracey. “The Gerona Beatus.” Tracey Warr, 14 Jan. 2020, traceywarrwriting.com/2020/01/14/the-gerona-beatus/.
