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News & Events>News
Archive>U.S. Tour extended FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. Tour Extended for The Saint John’s Bible
A Bible for the 21st Century Unites Medieval Tradition with Contemporary
Perspective
Collegeville, MN, August 31, 2006—Saint John’s University announces
additional venues for the national tour of The Saint John’s Bible,
the first handwritten and illuminated Bible to be commissioned by a
Benedictine monastery since the advent of the printing press more than 500
years ago. The Saint John’s Bible is an unprecedented undertaking in
contemporary book arts and a major cultural and interfaith endeavor.
Presentations of works from The Saint John’s Bible will include the
continuation of the tour of Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible,
as well as selections from the Prophets books of the Bible, one of
the most recently completed volumes. The extended exhibition schedule begins
this fall at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and the Museum of
Biblical Art, New York City, among other institutions (full schedule below).
The national tour of Illuminating the Word is made possible by
Target.
Commissioned by Saint John’s University and Abbey 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. Since 2000, Jackson has worked in rural Wales, United Kingdom, 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, malachite, silver, copper, and 24-karat
gold.
“The Saint John’s Bible makes a statement about faith, as well as the
importance of art and imagination,” said Brother Dietrich Reinhart, OSB,
president of Saint John’s University. “We are pleased to share our work and
introduce new elements of the project to audiences across the country
through this extended tour.”
The Saint John’s Bible, consisting of 1,150 pages in seven volumes,
will be completed in 2008. It will then 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 special celebrations and
be available to scholars and the public.
Tour Schedule (as of June 2006)
• Gilded Legacies: The Saint John’s Bible in Context
The Museum of Biblical Art (New York, NY)
September 7 – November 26, 2006
The Museum of Biblical Art will present a selection of folios from the
Prophets volume of the Saint John’s Bible. The exhibition will
also include more than 50 embellished books and individual leaves from the
collections of the American Bible Society and the Jewish Theological
Seminary, tracing more than 1,000 years of sacred scripture production.
• Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
Library of Congress (Washington, DC)
October 6 – December 15, 2006
The Library of Congress presentation of Illuminating the Word will
feature selections 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. Highlights
will include folios of The Seven Days of Creation, Genesis, The Garden of
Eden, The Ten Commandments, The Birth of Christ, The Crucifixion, and the
frontispieces for the four Gospels. A multi-media presentation, including a
loop of images drawn from the Library’s collections, will illustrate the
rich cross-cultural holdings of illuminated manuscripts, including Bibles,
Books of Hours, Torahs and Korans. Original artist sketches, tools and
materials from the scriptorium will also be on view.
• Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
Naples Art Museum (Naples, Florida)
January 26 – April 6, 2007
• Dead Sea Scrolls
San Diego Natural History Museum (San Diego, CA)
June 29 – December 31, 2007
Selections from Prophets from The Saint John’s Bible will be
featured in this exhibition.
• Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix, AZ)
December 9, 2007 – March 7, 2000
• Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, Canada)
April 11, 2008 – June 8, 2008
• Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA)
July 11 – September 5, 2008
• Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
Mobile Museum of Art (Mobile, AL)
October 10, 2008 – April 10, 2009
Publications
A new Saint John’s Bible publication will be available this fall.
Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament ($69.95), will
join Illuminating the Word: The Making of The Saint John’s Bible
($39.95) and Gospels and Acts ($64.95), which are both in their
second printing and Psalms ($59.95). All books are available in
affiliated museum bookstores, religious booksellers or Liturgical Press
(1-800-858-5450, 320-363-2213 or www.litpress.org).
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.
Contacts:
Linda Orzechowski, Saint John’s University, (320) 363-3514,
lorzechowsk@csbsju.edu
Amanda Domizio, Ruder Finn, (212) 583-2798, domizioa@ruderfinn.com
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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