Abstract

The imagery of "Combat of the Bird and the Serpent" symbolizes Christ defeating the devil. According to its text attached to the illustration, the battle is an allegory of the Incarnation of Christ. This illustration appears in several menuscripts produced in the early medieval Spain, especially in the Beatus Manuscripts: the commentary on the Apocalypse compiled by the monk Beatus. The unique depiction of the text and the full-page illustration are outstanding in the pictorial tradition of the manuscripts. In previous studies, particular sources of the text and iconographic traditions have been investigated, but the biggest question was overlooked: why was this illustration inserted? In this article, I examine its earliest surviving example in the Giorna Beatus, completed in A.D. 975, and argue that this imagery was represented with a certain intension, which enables us to relate the Old Testament to the Apocalypse. I also indicate that the very text of the illustration has much in common with the exegesis written by Beatus, if it is compared with the legenda derived from the Physiologus, the Christianized animal allegory gathered around the 2nd century. It is its allegory that includes the key to relate this illustration with the Beatus Manuscripts