Apocalypsis Sanctis Johannis

The Apocalypse of St. John was one of the most imaginatively
depicted biblical narratives in the medieval period, and there are many highly
decorated manuscripts of the text. The text was printed for the first time in
the early-1450s in northern Europe. Each page of text
and imagery was carved into individual wooden blocks and printed onto paper
sheets (xylographic printing). These blockbooks, as they are now called, were
printed as needed by customers—they were the first “print on demand” books—with
colors added by hand. The newly invented printing press was not capable of
printing such heavily illustrated texts, but the woodcut technique could handle
both image and text together and made the book slightly more affordable. The
imagery in the Apocalypse blockbooks is closely related to manuscripts from the
thirteenth century, including one from England
now also in the Morgan Library (MS M. 524). This image depicts the dragon
attacking the Children of the Woman in the upper half (Apoc. 12:17), while below, John witnesses the Apocalyptic
Beast arise from the sea (Apoc. 13:1).