Medieval apocalypticism has often been associated with revolutionary social movements, especially since the 1957 publication of Norman Cohn’s The Pursuit of the Millennium. Moreover, scholarship in past decades, especially that produced in the shadow of the year 2000, commonly fixated on eschatological concern over dates, such as the supposed “terrors of year 1000.” Apocalyptic Cultures in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, a collection of essays presented at the 2020 Symposium on Apocalypticism at the University of Tennessee, resists these tendencies, focusing on apocalypticism as an everyday phenomenon in the Western European Middle Ages, and one that could be used to advance the goals of elites.

An introduction by Jay Rubenstein provides a sense of the apocalyptic circumstances under which the 2020 conference took place (COVID) and establishes the project goals. From here, the essays are organized roughly chronologically. In the first, Stephen Shoemaker argues against viewing the seventh century, and especially the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, as the point when pro-imperial Christian apocalypticism was born: “a closer look at the world of late ancient Christianity, and the Tiburtine Sybil [sic] in particular, reveal that imperial eschatology in fact first emerged during the age of Constantine and his sons” (30). Shoemaker has made similar arguments elsewhere, but here he brings in additional patristic voices to support a fourth-century wave of optimism about the empire’s end times role that served the interest of the late Roman state. The essay reacts to my own work, and while I will avoid a detailed response here, I should note that Shoemaker could have saved much space and time if he waited to address my forthcoming book, rather than my (intentionally) unpublished PhD dissertation.

The next essay, by Brett Whalen, on the idea of the impermanence of the world within medieval cosmological thought, is very strong, and I foresee its appearance in introductory curriculum on syllabi for advanced undergraduate and graduate seminars on apocalypticism. After Whalen’s macro perspective, Jennifer Jahner dives into exploring apocalypticism through a single object: Cotton Roll XIV 12, a thirteenth-century English scroll adorned with a history of the world, with passages from Pseudo-Methodius, the Tiburtine Sibyl, Bede’s Reckoning of Time, and much else, which Jahner convincingly associates with a crusade context. Next, an essay by Thomas Maurer explores Super Prophetas, a text produced by followers of Joachim of Fiore during the conflict between Emperor Frederick II and the papacy. While Joachim and his immediate followers famously drew parallels between the Old Testament and contemporary events and figures (like Francis of Assisi and Frederick II), Maurer shows that Super Prophetas expands these parallels by giving all contemporary peoples Old Testament equivalents; as past, present, and future blended in the authors’ imaginations, Italy became the new Levant, the stage where conflict between God’s people and their enemies plays out. Richard Emmerson’s essay focuses on the early fifteenth-century illuminated “Apocalypse of Duc de Berry,” showing that its illustrations (reproduced here in full color) use imagery from Revelation to address the Great Western Schism.

An essay by Kathryne Beebe confronts eschatological meaning imbued in the practice of pilgrimage, and gendered differences in these experiences. Her most important evidence is an account of pilgrimage to Jerusalem written by a man in the 1480s (the Evagatorium), a copy of which, produced for a community of nuns, was interpolated with explicit references to the Book of Revelation and decorated with a frontispiece inspired by Revelation. From this, Beebe builds toward a bold proposition about “female religious having a greater interest in the apocalypse than male monastics” (187). While I have doubts that it is possible to quantitatively compare male and female interest in apocalypticism, Beebe’s essay opens a door to the more answerable question of how male and female emphases in apocalyptic interest may have differed.

Contributions by Laura Smoller and Robert Bast address the late fifteenth-century German-speaking lands. Smoller focuses on a 1496 commentary on Pseudo-Methodius produced by an Augsburg priest writing in the shadow of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and papal corruption on the eve of the Reformation, and how this cleric used an apocalypse produced in seventh-century Mesopotamia to address his concerns. Smoller effectively shows that one of the author’s major aims was to defend the legitimacy of astrology, which often supplemented speculation from prophetic sources. Next, Bast’s essay focuses on the propaganda of Emperor Maximilian I (r. 1486–1519), arguing that “central to Maximilian’s self-representation was the apocalyptic ‘Last World Emperor’ tradition” (220). Through an array of literature and illustrations, Bast does not so much show that Maximilian overtly claimed the mantle of the Pseudo-Methodian Last Emperor so much as integrate the Last Emperor tradition within the vast web of mythic and heroic associations built around Maximilian by his supporters. This will be a vital essay not just to scholars of apocalypticism, but anyone studying the reign of Maximilian.

The final contribution, by Colin McAllister, is a sort of meditation on the apocalyptic shadow of COVID, and much else. McAllister considers how modern society continues to dehumanize outsiders, making them into apocalyptic “Others,” fueling fear, hatred, and conspiracy theories. McAllister ends the volume with a hopeful note that post-pandemic society might move forward without need for these apocalyptic “Others” – sadly, just one more false prophecy.

This volume is commendably multi-disciplinary, bringing in perspectives from history, art history, and religious studies, among others. The color images make it particularly attractive. But one of the main questions when addressing a collection like this is whether the essays, most very strong on their own terms, come together as a compelling whole. On this, the verdict is mixed. In raising the issue of quotidian apocalypticism, this volume likely will be remembered as an important intervention in apocalyptic studies; and while the collection approaches this issue from too many angles to provide a single new way forward, I suspect several of the essays will serve as seeds for larger projects that will continue to challenge the idea that medieval belief in the end times was rare or revolutionary.