Umberto Eco - Beato di Liébana - 1973

Beatus of Liébana with the text by Umberto Eco.
Volume 13 of the series "The Signs of Man" was printed in Parma in September 1973 by Nino Amoretti under the direction of Franco Maria Ricci. The type used is Bodoni. The handmade laid paper was prepared specially in a round format at the Miliani paper mills of Fabriano. This volume is no. 2053 belonging to the first edition of three thousand numbered copies. Blue paper. Volume in the original case from 1973. Absolutely in very good condition. Slight oxidation to the gold title on the spine. Binding in black silk with titles impressed in gold and photo-application on the front board.
Beatus, abbot of the Spanish monastery of Liébana, is best known for the Commentary on the Apocalypse written in 776, then revised in 784 and again in 786; they are composed in medieval Latin and connected with the works of Augustine, Fulgentius, Jerome, and other writers and theologians.
In the following centuries these Commentaries were miniated in the monasteries of Navarre, Castile, and León. In them, Mozarabic art, born from the meeting in the Iberian Peninsula of the Christian tradition and that of Islam, finds its highest expression. In turn Umberto Eco wrote this historical "Commentary" on the commentary, illustrated by the miniatures of the Mozarab manuscript work of Beatus de Fernando I y Sancha (Codex B.N. Madrid Vit.14-2). Introduction and bibliographical notes by Luis Vélezquez de Parga Iglesias translated by Gianni Guadalupi. Of great interest is the list of existing manuscripts and the catalog of the miniatures of the Madrid Codex.
The book was purchased by me as soon as it came out, then stored on the shelf; opened again only now for the photographs.
A collector's item.