Creation

Garden of Eden

Jacob's Ladder

Ten Commandments

Pentecost (Acts 1)

Psalms Book II Frontispiece

Psalms Book V Frontispiece

Frontispiece from Gospel of Matthew

Frontispiece from the Gospel of Mark

Frontispiece from the Gospel of Luke

Frontispiece from the Gospel of John

Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly from the end of Gospel of Mark

Sower and the Seed (Mark 3,4)

Life in Community (Acts 5,6)

Life of Paul (Acts 15)

I am Statements (John 6)

• Commissioned by St. John's Benedictine Abbey, Collegeville, MI

• Artistic director is Donald Jackson, senior scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth along with a team of scribes and artists working in a scriptorium in Monmouth, Wales

• First known handwritten Bible commissioned by a Benedictine monastery since the invention of the printing press over 500 years ago

• Original of monumental size, each page 24 ½ x 15 ⅞ inches

• All 73 books of the Old and New Testament will be presented in seven volumes of about 1,150 pages

• The translation is the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

• Planning and work began in 1998 and will be completed in 2010

• Probably the first handwritten Bible in English, nearly all were in Latin

• Use of traditional materials such as vellum (calfskin) ancient inks, gold and silver leaf, and platinum

• Written with quill pens fashioned from goose, turkey, and swan feathers

• Modern touches such as a view of the earth taken from outer space (creation) and an image of the twin towers to illustrate forgiveness in the gospel parable of the Prodigal Son

• Global perspective with art references from Africa, Australia, Asia, South America as well as the traditional western sources

• Global perspective with art references from Africa, Australia, Asia, South America as well as the traditional western sources

• Ancient art symbols through modern symbols are used

• Ecumenical inclusions in art from other religion sources