St. John’s Abbey’s Bible: First Handwritten, Illuminated Bible Since the Printing Press
I remember reading about this Bible back when researching my novel Tojet (the character Merkit joined a monastery after his wife died).
St. John’s Abbey had a very informative website about the modern life of the monks living there. One of the monks even responded to my e-mailed questions. It was awesome. 🙂
Here’s their website now.
The St. John’s Bible is the first handwritten, illuminated Bible commissioned since the advent of the printing press.
It was commissioned in 1998 by the Benedictine monks of St. John’s Abbey and University in Minnesota to “ignite the spiritual imagination of believers throughout the world and to illuminate the word of God for a new millennium,” said Kate Candee, vice president for missions and retention at Marian [University in Fond du Lac].
“It’s hard to describe the magnitude of this,” Candee said.
The Bible was created by a team of scribes, artists and craftspeople in a scriptorium in Wales under the artistic direction of Jackson, one of the world’s foremost calligraphers and the Scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Crown Office at the House of Lords in London, England. —Marian University Receives Fine Art Editions of St. John’s Bible