VISIGOTHIC SPAINWhen Muslim armies crossed into Spain
from North Africa in 711 (see Chapter 13), they brought Islam to a
land the Romans had ruled for centuries. Roman sovereignty had
brought new roads to the Iberian Peninsula and new cities with
Roman temples, forums, theaters, and aqueducts. But in the early
fifth century, the Roman cities fell to Germanic invaders, most no-
tably the Visigoths, who had converted to Christianity. Many of the
stone churches the Visigoths built in the sixth and seventh centuries
still stand. An outstanding example is the church of San Juan Bautista
(Saint John the Baptist,FIG. 16-10) at Baños de Cerrato, which the
Visigothic king Recceswinth (r. 649–672) erected in 661 in thanks-
giving for a cure after bathing in the waters there. The Visigothic
churches are basilican in form but often have multiple square apses.
(The Baños de Cerrato church has three.) They also regularly incor-
porate horseshoe arches, a form usually associated with Islamic archi-
tecture (FIG. 13-11) but that in Spain predates the Muslim conquest.
MOZARABIC SPAINAlthough the Islamic caliphs of Córdo-
ba swept the Visigoths from power, they never succeeded in gaining
control of the northernmost parts of the peninsula. There, the
Christian culture called Mozarabic (referring to Christians living in
Arab territories) continued to flourish. One northern Spanish
monk, Beatus, abbot of San Martín at Liébana, wrote Commentary
on the Apocalypse around 776. This influential work was widely
copied and illustrated in the monastic scriptoria of medieval Eu-
rope. One copy was produced at the monastery of San Salvador at
Tábara in the kingdom of Léon in 970. The colophon (FIG. 16-11)
to the illustrated Commentary presents the earliest known depiction
of a medieval scriptorium. Because the artist provided a composite
of exterior and interior views of the building, it is especially infor-
mative. At the left is a great bell tower with a monk on the ground
floor ringing the bells. The painter carefully recorded the Islamic-
style glazed-tile walls of the tower, its interior ladders, and its elegant
windows with their horseshoe arches, the legacy of the Visigoths. To
the right, in the scriptorium proper, three monks perform their re-
spective specialized duties. The colophon identifies the two monks
in the main room as the scribe Senior and the painter Emeterius.
To the right, a third monk uses shears to cut sheets of parchment.
The colophon also pays tribute to Magius, “the worthy master
16-10San Juan Bautista, Baños de Cerrato, Spain, 661.
This three-aisled basilican church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist is
typical of Visigothic architecture in Spain. It features three square apses
and an entrance portal crowned by a horseshoe arch.
16-11Emeterius,the tower and scriptorium of San Salvador de
Tábara, colophon (folio 168) of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by
Beatus, from Tábara, Spain, 970. Tempera on parchment, 1 21 – 8 10 .
Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid.
In this earliest known depiction of a medieval scriptorium, the painter
carefully recorded the Islamic-style glazed-tile walls of the tower and its
elegant windows with their horseshoe arches, a legacy of the Visigoths.Carolingian Art 415painter ...May he deserve to be crowned with Christ,”^4 who died
before he could complete his work on the book. His pupil Emeterius
took his place and brought the project to fruition. He must be the
painter of the colophon.Carolingian Art
On Christmas Day of the year 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charles the
Great (Charlemagne), king of the Franks since 768, as emperor of
Rome (r. 800–814). In time, Charlemagne came to be seen as the first
Holy (that is, Christian) Roman Emperor, a title his successors did
not formally adopt until the 12th century. The setting for Charle-
magne’s coronation, fittingly, was Saint Peter’s basilica (FIG. 11-9) in
Rome, built by Constantine, the first Roman emperor to embrace
Christianity. Born in 742, when northern Europe was still in chaos,
Charlemagne consolidated the Frankish kingdom his father and
grandfather bequeathed him and defeated the Lombards in Italy
(MAP16-1). He thus united Europe and laid claim to reviving the
glory of the ancient Roman Empire. He gave his name (Carolus
Magnus in Latin) to an entire era, the Carolingian period.1 in.