aboutimage galleriescontactsubscribe

The St. John's Bible

JANUARY 14, 2007
the seven days of creation
A while ago I saw an article about this project in Smithsonian, and today saw an interview with Donald Jackson, who is the illustrator, calligrapher and "artistic director".  St. John's University in Minnesota commissioned this handwritten, illuminated Bible, the first  in more than 500 years to be written by hand. From NPR: "The St. John's Bible incorporates modern themes, images and technology of the 21st century. It takes between eight and 10 hours to write and illuminate a single page. So far, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Gospels, Acts and Psalms are complete. A goal of the project, according to a fact sheet, is to produce "a work of art [that] will ignite the spiritual imagination of believers throughout the world." 

As Jackson said in the interview today, "it takes a special kind of courage to invest  millions of dollars or more in something that doesn't exist yet."

It's a kind of amazing, massive  and fascinating project from an artistic point of view. You can buy a limited edition copy for $115,000.



Book of John Frontspiece
Birth of Christ
© 2024 Robert Hunt