That is indeed stunning. John is the most poetic of the Gospels. The King James translation isn't especially accurate, but it's powerful. It deserves a good illuminated edition.
I'd love a set of annotations of the inspirations for each illumination. Medieval illuminations are heavily coded and full of allusions that would go over my head.
The KJV is an exceptionally good translation, and its flaws are particular and well-known. It was made at a time when all the most intelligent people of the world were doing Latin Greek and Hebrew, instead of say physics or javascript.
What I love about the KJV is that Queen Elizabeth had encouraged an entire nation of poets, and they were still around for James. It was cool to write poetry, and everybody did it. (She banged out a few decent verses herself, for that matter.)
Even today, KJV is the "voice of God". When you want to write a divine voice, you mimic KJV. "Thou shalt not..." just sounds more authoritative than "Don't", even though they mean the same thing. (I'd argue that "don't" better preserves the meaning, which was not meant to sound archaic. "Thou" sounded informal in the 17th century, but that's not how it sounds now.)
The flaws in KJV run deep; it's a very opinionated translation. Which is fine; every translation is opinionated. But there's a risk that people assume it's definitive because it's so powerful. There are some who literally claim that it is truly definitive -- even more so than the Hebrew and Greek originals. (This is of course insane, and that's the fault of horrific theology rather than the translation.)
I had heard KJV had some translation issues, but I'm surprised to hear that about John. I tried to learn Koine Greek, and a lot of the lessons started with John 1, so I always assumed it was one of the easier things to translate.
Indeed. But, the text is so illuminated it borders on unreadable, like something straight out of Part 4 of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, where the ritual overtakes the flight itself.
For those who live in or visit New York City, a little known gem worth checking out is a mini-museum inside the New York Public Library in midtown, next to Bryant Park. It is a single room, called "Treasures". Here's an illuminated manuscript from the 1300's [1].
Here's a little treat, if you go there. You may have heard of the Rhind mathematical papyrus [1]. It's a papyrus that's more than 3500 years old which has some math exercises on it. It's the oldest that we have discovered.
At this "Treasures" mini-museum you will find a small cuneiform tablet with math exercises that's at least 100 years older than the Rhind mathematical papyrus.
There is a Gutenberg bible there. I would say there are at least 10 items more impressive than the Gutenberg bible; I count this tablet as one of those.
They also sell a 7 volume version of the St. John's Bible—even at 2/3 scale, the books are around 15"x10". It's beautiful, and I'm glad to own the entire set. (I'm not a Christian, I just love illuminated manuscripts).
But it's important to remember that practically all Jewish scholarship as we know it came into being as an explicit refutation of Christianity, and was a fairly radical shift compared to what records we have prior to that. Regardless, "sin" is a major theme of the book no matter how you look at it.
Forget handwriting - I rarely see anything with as much care and effort put into it as this project.
I like to think that I put a lot of ~~craftmanship~~ into my code, but the effort put into every single letter of a roughly fifteen-thousand-word book (to say nothing of the letter at the beginning of the chapters or the illustrations) is on another level.
I was interested in calligraphy since a young age, by having my brothers friends father being a very famous calligrapher as well as an interest in illuminated manucripts.
I was in LA and wanted to visit the Getty to just see the building, when we found out that there was an exhibit on illuminated manuscripts. I spent an hour looking at the archicture and the rest of the time looking at the entire exhibit, until the staff insisted that we must leave. Sorry. I absolutely lost all track of time.
AFAIU it is essentially mass-produced (pun intended?). The master is carefully handwritten, all the others are copies taken with an industrial (if high quality) process.
EDIT: That's not meant to be dismissive of it. It looks like a very beautifut book, and I'll probably buy one.
I suppose that if you divide up the value of a full Bible by 73 or 66, the price for a Gospel of John alone is pretty reasonable. It is certainly not practical to purchase one book alone, other than for ornamental or display purposes.
A Gospel of John alone is unsuitable for any liturgical use. Most illuminated books were pretty much understood to be placed in sacred liturgical settings, and therefore it made sense to go to that expense; they would not be shoved in a monk's drawer or a young girl's dowry chest, all things being equal.
Therefore, the illumination process would produce a complete Lectionary, a Psalter, or a Missal; speaking as a liturgical Roman Catholic, the Holy Bible is not a book we use directly for public liturgy, like at all. Bibles are for personal devotion and study. A Book of Gospels is a specialized Lectionary, and I do not know its particular structure, but it would need to include all four, for sure!
If they intend to produce all four Gospels this way, or the entire NT, that's great; I'm sure a collector would avidly follow their publication and snap them all up in short order. But for ordinary consumers, the sheer utility of an illuminated Bible is questionable at best. It's the sort of thing you'll place on a coffee table as a conversation piece, or prominently on a shelf, just to exhibit your wealth and good taste.
Would he? There seems to be a tradition of illuminations of the Quran (see e.g. https://www.islamicity.org/77800/illumination-of-the-quran/, first result of an internet search). The style is quite different, since Islam forbids making representations of animated beings, but that didn't prevent the development of a rather exquisite craftmanship.
That is indeed stunning. John is the most poetic of the Gospels. The King James translation isn't especially accurate, but it's powerful. It deserves a good illuminated edition.
I'd love a set of annotations of the inspirations for each illumination. Medieval illuminations are heavily coded and full of allusions that would go over my head.
The KJV is an exceptionally good translation, and its flaws are particular and well-known. It was made at a time when all the most intelligent people of the world were doing Latin Greek and Hebrew, instead of say physics or javascript.
What I love about the KJV is that Queen Elizabeth had encouraged an entire nation of poets, and they were still around for James. It was cool to write poetry, and everybody did it. (She banged out a few decent verses herself, for that matter.)
Even today, KJV is the "voice of God". When you want to write a divine voice, you mimic KJV. "Thou shalt not..." just sounds more authoritative than "Don't", even though they mean the same thing. (I'd argue that "don't" better preserves the meaning, which was not meant to sound archaic. "Thou" sounded informal in the 17th century, but that's not how it sounds now.)
The flaws in KJV run deep; it's a very opinionated translation. Which is fine; every translation is opinionated. But there's a risk that people assume it's definitive because it's so powerful. There are some who literally claim that it is truly definitive -- even more so than the Hebrew and Greek originals. (This is of course insane, and that's the fault of horrific theology rather than the translation.)
Most of my reading is in Greek and Latin (no Hebrew), and I disagree with your evaluation. My evaluation remains as above.
I had heard KJV had some translation issues, but I'm surprised to hear that about John. I tried to learn Koine Greek, and a lot of the lessons started with John 1, so I always assumed it was one of the easier things to translate.
You could spend a whole semester just on John 1:1. The word "logos" is all over the place.
Indeed. But, the text is so illuminated it borders on unreadable, like something straight out of Part 4 of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, where the ritual overtakes the flight itself.
For those who live in or visit New York City, a little known gem worth checking out is a mini-museum inside the New York Public Library in midtown, next to Bryant Park. It is a single room, called "Treasures". Here's an illuminated manuscript from the 1300's [1].
[1] https://imgur.com/a/qPnpP40
Passed by many times and never knew - will definitely check this out!
Here's a little treat, if you go there. You may have heard of the Rhind mathematical papyrus [1]. It's a papyrus that's more than 3500 years old which has some math exercises on it. It's the oldest that we have discovered.
At this "Treasures" mini-museum you will find a small cuneiform tablet with math exercises that's at least 100 years older than the Rhind mathematical papyrus.
There is a Gutenberg bible there. I would say there are at least 10 items more impressive than the Gutenberg bible; I count this tablet as one of those.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhind_Mathematical_Papyrus
I thought this was the St John’s Illuminated Bible a much more comprehensive and awe inspiring work out of the St John’s abbey in Minnesota.
https://saintjohnsbible.org/
Its a beautiful and modern interpretation of how an illuminated work would be done today. Even has Jesus wearing jeans.
Each bible is commissioned and done by hand, so a bit more than a $35 book the link is referring to.
They also sell a 7 volume version of the St. John's Bible—even at 2/3 scale, the books are around 15"x10". It's beautiful, and I'm glad to own the entire set. (I'm not a Christian, I just love illuminated manuscripts).
[flagged]
Brought Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis to my mind. Maybe not your mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Genesis_(comic)
It's almost like the message of Genesis is "y'all need Jesus" or something.
It very much isn't though, at least not to its original authors.
Well, it's not the only message.
But it's important to remember that practically all Jewish scholarship as we know it came into being as an explicit refutation of Christianity, and was a fairly radical shift compared to what records we have prior to that. Regardless, "sin" is a major theme of the book no matter how you look at it.
How far would a father go to save his children is another way to look at it.
My favorite Crumb is 'the polkadotted demon goes to church'
In an era where handwriting has atrophied significantly (read: mine especially), I am heartened to see such precision and artistry.
Forget handwriting - I rarely see anything with as much care and effort put into it as this project.
I like to think that I put a lot of ~~craftmanship~~ into my code, but the effort put into every single letter of a roughly fifteen-thousand-word book (to say nothing of the letter at the beginning of the chapters or the illustrations) is on another level.
Perhaps coding needs marginalia.
I was interested in calligraphy since a young age, by having my brothers friends father being a very famous calligrapher as well as an interest in illuminated manucripts.
I was in LA and wanted to visit the Getty to just see the building, when we found out that there was an exhibit on illuminated manuscripts. I spent an hour looking at the archicture and the rest of the time looking at the entire exhibit, until the staff insisted that we must leave. Sorry. I absolutely lost all track of time.
Some of artist's work: https://www.calligrafee.com/en/gallery/
She also did an illuminated psalter in French, that one is available by special order only it seems: https://www.calligrafee.com/en/illuminated-psalter/
It only costs £35! Here I was expecting hundreds, thousands!
How elaborate or precious can it be, if this costs about the same as a typical mass-produced Bible?
AFAIU it is essentially mass-produced (pun intended?). The master is carefully handwritten, all the others are copies taken with an industrial (if high quality) process.
EDIT: That's not meant to be dismissive of it. It looks like a very beautifut book, and I'll probably buy one.
It's only the Gospel of John and not the full bible.
I suppose that if you divide up the value of a full Bible by 73 or 66, the price for a Gospel of John alone is pretty reasonable. It is certainly not practical to purchase one book alone, other than for ornamental or display purposes.
A Gospel of John alone is unsuitable for any liturgical use. Most illuminated books were pretty much understood to be placed in sacred liturgical settings, and therefore it made sense to go to that expense; they would not be shoved in a monk's drawer or a young girl's dowry chest, all things being equal.
Therefore, the illumination process would produce a complete Lectionary, a Psalter, or a Missal; speaking as a liturgical Roman Catholic, the Holy Bible is not a book we use directly for public liturgy, like at all. Bibles are for personal devotion and study. A Book of Gospels is a specialized Lectionary, and I do not know its particular structure, but it would need to include all four, for sure!
If they intend to produce all four Gospels this way, or the entire NT, that's great; I'm sure a collector would avidly follow their publication and snap them all up in short order. But for ordinary consumers, the sheer utility of an illuminated Bible is questionable at best. It's the sort of thing you'll place on a coffee table as a conversation piece, or prominently on a shelf, just to exhibit your wealth and good taste.
Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript
a catholic version of this would be great
Perhaps in the Douay Rheims.
I wonder if this article was about an illuminated quran if it would have reached HN front page.
Religious scriptures for sale feels really weird on HN either way.
If you ever get the chance, visit the Aga Khan museum in Toronto. It has a number of illuminated Qurans, and they're absolutely gorgeous.
Mohamed would probably summarily have you killed, if that alters your perspective at all
Would he? There seems to be a tradition of illuminations of the Quran (see e.g. https://www.islamicity.org/77800/illumination-of-the-quran/, first result of an internet search). The style is quite different, since Islam forbids making representations of animated beings, but that didn't prevent the development of a rather exquisite craftmanship.
It's art, if you just want the text translated to kingon or L33t speak, you can down load that. No need for a jihad.