By proclaiming an earthly stage of bliss attributed to the Holy Spirit, Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202) fostered ideas of the Millennium and progression in history. His Trinitarian hermeneutics provided him with new insights to the Scriptures through which he viewed the history of salvation, prefigured in the Seven Seals of the Apocalypse. Joachim’s treatise, De septem sigillis, edited for the first time from the complete corpus of manuscript evidence, outlines God's plan from the First Seal to the coming of Antichrist and the Last Judgment. This volume explains how deeply rooted in medieval exegesis and eschatology Joachim's concept of the Seals was. It introduces him as scholar and visionary, traditionalist and innovator, and as one of the most exciting witnesses to the Twelfth-Century Renaissance.
