Douce Apocalypse
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| Douce Apocalypse | |
|---|---|
| The Bodleian Library | |
 | |
| Date | 1354 X 1372 |
| Place of origin | England |
| Language(s) | Old French and Latin |
| Patron | Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile |
| Material | Parchment |
| Size | 31.1 centimetres (12.2 in) x 20.3 centimetres (8.0 in) |
| Contents | Book of Revelation and commentary |
| Accession | Douce 180 |
The Douce Apocalypse is an illuminated manuscript of the Book of Revelation, dating from the third quarter of the 13th century, preserved in the Bodleian Library under the reference Douce 180. The manuscript contains 97 miniatures. It has been called "one of the glories of English thirteenth-century painting".[1]
The manuscript contains in its first historiated initial two characters, a knight and a lady kneeling in prayer before the Trinity and bearing the arms of two sponsors of the manuscript: Edward, Prince of Wales and future Edward I of England, and his wife, Eleanor of Castile. The work was carried out in successive stages between 1254, the date of their marriage, and 1272, when the prince acceded to the throne.[2] On stylistic and other grounds a more precise date of between 1265 and 1270 has been proposed.[3] The manuscript was made in Westminster,[4] or perhaps Canterbury.[5] No later owner is identified until the 19th century, when it was put up for sale at Christie's by William Wilson in 1833. It was acquired the same year by Francis Douce, who left his collection to the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford on his death in 1834.[6]
