New Exhibition: The St. John's Bible

Opening at the Walters Art Museum, an exhibition featuring the "10-year effort to create the first handwritten, illuminated Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery since the advent of the printing press."

The project was launched 9 years ago by monks from St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota, using medieval illumination methods like quills made from turkey, swan and goose feathers, and natural paints and inks, all on calfskin vellum, though the text is from the New Revised Standard version of the Bible, and in modern English. Interestingly, the images are also inspired by modern circumstances and events. The modern manuscript will be displayed along with medieval manuscripts from the Walters's collection. More information about the exhibit can be found here.

The Saint John's Bible: a Modern Vision through Medieval Methods is on through May 24, 2009.