BEATUS OF LIÉBANA. - Born at Liébana in the Asturias, he was tutor and confessor of Queen Adosinda, Benedictine abbot of Valcavado (diocese of León) and died on 19 February 798. He is honored in Spain under the name of St. Biego. Together with Eterius, bishop of Osma, he opposed Adoptionism (v.). The two epistles Contra Elipandum are published, together with a life of him, in PL 96, 890-1030.
He is known above all for the Commentary on the Apocalypse published by Florez in 1770, in an edition that is by now extremely rare, and republished in 1930 by Henry A. Sanders in vol. VII of the Papers and monographs of the American Academy in Rome. This commentary, very important for the history of ancient Latin exegesis and for the text of the Apocalypse itself, differs from the usual Catenae of patristic quotations, because the passages are linked to one another so ingeniously and so harmoniously as to form a single whole without breaks in continuity. B. himself indicates the names of nine authors whom he used, but the substance of the work is made up of the Commentaries of Apringius (v.) of Beja, of Tyconius (v.) and of Victorinus of Africa (v.). The work of B. thus makes it possible to establish, through the transcribed passages, the original text of the commentary of Victorinus and the most important and most precious part of that of the Donatist Tyconius, whose text is lost. The Apocalypse of B. is furthermore important for a map of the terrestrial globe and for its many codices rich in miniatures, which were held by Neuss to derive from a single source of the 5th century of African milieu; these, instead, clearly reveal a stylistic affinity with the art of the regions on the two slopes of the Pyrenees, of the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries. Moreover the architectures adhere to Arab forms and types, while the figures show Celtic and Merovingian influences.
Quite singular, then, is the stylization, and therefore the iconographic constancy, of certain celestial personages (e.g. the angels), which contrasts with the verism of other figures. The liveliness of movement, which links the figurations with Carolingian art, and especially certain bold perspectival arrangements, confer great importance on the codices of B., from the point of view of art history.
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