SIBYLS


There were twelve Sibyls. This image, from BL Additional MS 18851 (the Isabella Breviary) fol. 8v, shows them all with the opening words of their prophecies on scrolls. It faces the prayers for the First Week in Advent, which foretells the coming of Christ.
The Cumaean Sibyl, dressed in blue, sits next to the pole of the pavilion at the back.
This artist worked in the 3rd quarter of the fifteenth century.

Here are eight of the Sibyls from the Nuremberg Chronicle. This is the page I own. Each one has a costume description alongside. They could be used (and probably were) to provide authentic costumes for plays and pageants.
The Sibyls were arranged in chronological order of what their prophecies were supposed to prognosticate. Here they carry attributes which allude to this:



Persian Sibyl:
Through a glass darkly


Libyan Sibyl:
Christ as Light


Erythrean Sibyl:
Annunciation


Cumaean Sibyl:
Nativity


Samian Sibyl:
The Crib


Cimmerian Sibyl:
Mary suckles Christ


European Sibyl:
Flight into Egypt


Tiburtine Sibyl:
Buffetting


Sibyl Agrippa:
Scourging


Delphic Sibyl:
Crown of Thorns


Hellespontine Sibyl:
Crucifixion


Phrygian Sibyl:
Resurrection

This is an elaborately dressed Italian version of the Tiburtine Sibyl (Sybil of the Tiber). She was the one who showed the Emperor Augustus the vision of the Birth of Christ.

This stylised version comes from the Tres Riches Heures of the Duc de Berri.
This is an image, from an Italian Renaissance picture chronicle, of the Cumaean Sibyl emerging from the mouth of her cave, probably to greet Aeneas.

For more about the Sibyls and the Sibylline Oracles, try this entry from the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

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