Calendar
Information
Institute
People
Research projects
Publications
Library
Photo library
Patrons
Applications
Directorates
Library
Photo library
Young Researchers
Max Planck Fellow
Max Planck Research Groups
Minerva Program
Research cooperations
Research of employees
     
                 
Go to Homepage
 
Joachim of Fiore's Liber Figurarum and Apocalyptic Discourses in Duecento and Trecento Italian Art and Literature

Heather Michele Coffey

Throughout his monastic career the famed visionary and exegete Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135-1202) authored a corpus of scholarly treatises unified by their apocalyptic tenor. Texts such as his Expositio in Apocalypsin and his Liber de concordia Novi ac Veteris Testamenti expound a grand eschatological scheme predicated on the detection of overlapping numerical sequences of historical events. Joachim's core belief in three interlocking periods (or "status") of history, each lasting forty-two generations, implied that an apocalyptic crisis would occur in the year 1260. Encapsulating the central tenets of his theorems, the Liber Figurarum is composed of several full-scale painted picto-diagrams enhanced with written captions that allow a clear, crisp presentation of the temporal axis of salvation unencumbered by narrative detail. While Joachim of Fiore has long been a predominant subject of scholarship concerning medieval apocalyptic theory, his figurae are largely absent from lateral discussions of medieval apocalyptic artistic traditions. This study will contextualize the Liber Figurarum within medieval visual culture, considering computistical-astrological diagrams, medical diagrams and other select schemata, while also exploring possible intersections with subsequent apocalyptic art, particularly within a Franciscan context.










   Project collaborators
Heather Michele Coffey

< back
Print this page 		 
Go to MPG Homepage