Miniature from a Manuscript of the Apocalypse: The Woman upon the Scarlet Beast and The Fall of Babylon

The visionary text of Saint John the Evangelist's Apocalypse, the final book of the New Testament, inspired these images of salvation, sin, and divine retribution. A large number of illustrated volumes of the Apocalypse appeared in Northern Europe, especially in England, after the year 1240, perhaps reflecting a fear of the world's end.