JAMES, Montague Rhodes. Editor. The Dublin Apocalypse. Coloured frontispiece and 82 full page collotype plates [ROXBURGHE CLUB]

Printed for the Roxburghe Club at the Cambridge University Press, 1932. Quarto. First Edition pp. [viii], 23, ix-[xxxiv]. With Sir John Fortescue name printed in red in the roll of members. Modern quarter red morocco, titled in gilt. A fine copy.
This outstanding English illuminated Apocalypse of the late 13th or early 14th century belongs to a group of East-Anglian MSS. The 14th century Latin text has been held by Trinity College, Dublin since the 19th century and is now free to the public to view online for the first time.
Depicting scenes from the Book of Revelation – the final book in the new testament – and accompanied by illustrations in vivid colours depicting scenes of the horsemen of the Apocalypse, battles with beasts and a heavenly Jerusalem. The ‘Dublin Apocalypse’ differs from contemporary texts. Unlike most manuscripts from the 13th and 14th centuries in which the text took up more of less the whole page, the Trinity text features large illustrations of biblical scenes with the text significantly smaller than usual. Though the identity of the artist remains a mystery, they likely created similar manuscripts which are now held at Oxford University in the UK.
Provenance: From the library of Sir John William Fortescue (1859-1933), British military historian who served as Royal Librarian and Archivist at Windsor Castle from 1905 until 1926. Fortescue is best known for his major work on the history of the British Army, which he wrote between 1899 and 1930.