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News & Events>News
Releases>National
Exhibition Tour of The Saint John’s Bible, coming to Naples Museum of
Art, Naples, FL For
Immediate Release: October 12, 2006 (update date)
Contact: Linda Orzechowski (320)363-3514 or
lorzechowsk@csbsju.edu
National Exhibition Tour of The Saint
John’s Bible,
the First Handwritten Bible in 500 Years,
Coming to Naples Museum of Art
21st Century Bible Uses a Medieval Tradition
to Interpret Scripture from a Contemporary Perspective
‘America’s Book of Kells’
– Newsweek
‘One of the extraordinary undertakings of our time.”
– Smithsonian
magazine
NAPLES, FLORIDA — The Naples Museum of Art will present the history
making exhibition Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible from
Friday, January 26 through Friday, April 6, 2007. This is the only showing
of this critically acclaimed exhibition in Florida.
Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible presents the first
handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned since the advent of the
printing press more than 500 years ago. The Saint John’s Bible, a
richly ornamented masterwork hand-illustrated with gold leaf on oversized
vellum, is an unprecedented undertaking in contemporary book arts and a
major cultural and interfaith endeavor. This exhibition is organized by The
Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Saint John’s University. It is made
possible by a grant from Target.
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ILLUMINATING THE WORD: THE SAINT JOHN’S BIBLE/2
Commissioned by Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville,
Minnesota, The Saint John’s Bible is a contemporary work created in
the tradition of handwritten medieval manuscripts. The artistic director of
the project, Donald Jackson, is one of the world’s foremost calligraphers
and scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Crown Office at the House of
Lords. During the past four years, Jackson has worked in rural Wales, with
scribes and artists to write and illuminate The Saint John’s Bible
entirely by hand, using quills and paints hand-ground from precious minerals
and stones such as lapis lazuli, vermilion, malachite, silver, copper, and
24-karat gold.
Donald Jackson will be in Naples to give a lecture on the project on
Saturday, February 3 at 10 a.m. in Hayes Hall.
Illuminating the Word features pages from the first three completed
volumes of The Saint John’s Bible: Pentateuch (the first five books
of Jewish and Christian scripture), Gospels and Acts, and Psalms.
Among the pages on view are The Seven Days of Creation, The Garden of
Eden, Jacob’s Ladder, The Ten Commandments, The Parable of the Loaves and
Fishes, The Sermon on the Mount, The Parable of the Sower and the Seed, The
Birth of Christ, Dinner at the Pharisee’s House, The Woman Accused of
Adultery, The Raising of Lazarus, The Death of Moses, The Crucifixion,
the frontispieces for the four Gospels, and images of flora and fauna
indigenous to Minnesota. Original artist sketches are on view, as is a
worktable from the scriptorium displaying materials such as quills,
hand-ground pigments, gold leaf, calfskin vellum, and ancient inks from
China. The exhibition also includes examples of sacred texts from
non-Christian religions and artwork from the special collections of Saint
John’s University.
“The Saint John’s Bible is an exquisite work of art, a
masterpiece of calligraphy,” said Myra Janco Daniels, founder and CEO of the
Naples Museum of Art. “We are honored to be bringing it to Naples and are
grateful to Target for their sponsorship.”
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ILLUMINATING THE WORD: THE SAINT JOHN’S BIBLE/3
Theologians from Saint John’s Abbey and University and the College of
Saint Benedict, together with consultants from other faiths, have worked
with Jackson, providing theological briefs that direct the interpretation of
scripture in the illustrations. Based on these briefs, Jackson and his team
of scribes and artists have created illuminations reflecting a multicultural
world and humanity’s enormous strides in science, technology, and space
travel. Because the project is an interfaith undertaking, Jackson has
incorporated imagery from Eastern and Western religious traditions, as well
as influences from Native American cultures.
For example, an illumination in Gospels and Acts depicts the
Earth as seen from space, a contemporary interpretation of our place in the
universe. Illuminations throughout Psalms show artistic renderings of
digital voice prints of Saint John’s monks chanting the Psalms—intersected
with digital voice prints of calls to prayer in Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist,
Sufi, and Native American religious traditions.
“Illuminated manuscripts have always marked the time and place in which
they were created, and The Saint John’s Bible will reflect our world
at the beginning of the twenty-first century for future generations,” said
Brother Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president of Saint John’s University.
“Today, through partnerships with museums and educational outreach, we hope
to touch people of all cultures and creeds with the spirit and beauty of
this book.”
The Saint John’s Bible, consisting of 1,150 pages in seven volumes, will
be completed in 2008. Then it will be housed permanently at the Hill Museum
and Manuscript Library, Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville,
Minnesota, where it will be used in worship and be available to scholars and
the public. The Saint John’s Bible will tour to libraries and museums
worldwide, offering educational and outreach initiatives for children and
underserved communities.
“The Saint John's Bible is a unique artistic undertaking, and Target is
proud to bring the ‘Illuminating the Word’ exhibition to the Naples
Museum of Art and other venues across the country,” said Laysha Ward, vice
president, community relations, Target Corporation. “Target believes in
making the arts accessible, and through our sponsorship of this exhibition,
we hope all audiences will enjoy the project’s contemporary and
multicultural nature.” (Molly—they pulled this quote from old materials;
would you like to update?)
Four exhibition-related books are available for purchase:
Illuminating the Word: The Making of The Saint John’s Bible ($39.95),
Gospels and Acts ($64.95), Pentateuch ($69.95) and Psalms
($39.95). Prophets will be released in early 2007. For more
information visit the website at
www.saintjohnsbible.org
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ILLUMINATING THE WORD: THE SAINT JOHN’S BIBLE/4
Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible will also be exhibited at
the following venues: Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix, AZ), December 9,
2007-March 7, 2008; Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, Canada), April 11-June
8, 2008; Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA), July 11-September 5, 2008; Mobile
Museum of Art (Mobile, AL), October 10, 2008-April 10, 2009.
About Saint John’s Abbey and University and the Hill Museum & Manuscript
Library (HMML)
Saint John’s Abbey is a Benedictine monastic community of men who follow
the 1500-year tradition of worship and work through daily prayer and
service. About two thirds of the community live and work in Collegeville,
Minnesota. The Abbey is located on 2,400 acres of woodland and lakes in
Collegeville, 70 miles north of Minneapolis/Saint Paul. Located on the
campus of Saint John’s University, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library is
dedicated to preservation of and access to art, rare books, and manuscripts
focused on how humans imagine the sacred. HMML’s history of preserving rare
and endangered handwritten works from around the world by capturing them on
microfilm, and now in digital formats, began in earnest in 1965; the
collection now totals 30 million pages of manuscripts, the world’s largest
collection of manuscript images.
In the Benedictine tradition of reverence for human thought and
creativity, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) preserves
manuscripts, printed books and art at Saint John's University; undertakes
photographic preservation projects throughout the world; and makes these
resources available to students, researchers and visitors both onsite and
through advanced technology. HMML is the home of the world’s largest
collection of manuscript images and of The Saint John’s Bible, a
handwritten, illuminated Bible for the modern era. HMML is located on the
Saint John’s University campus, 70 miles northwest of Minneapolis on I-94
and can be found at www.hmml.org or
through the Saint John’s University Web site at
www.csbsju.edu.
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