A Bible for the 21st Century

As the third millennium approached the Benedictine monks of St. John's University in Minnesota considered how they would want to celebrate the new century. They wanted to commission a handwritten bible as a statement of their faith. It would be in the great tradition of the monastic bibles written by the scribes of the Middle Ages, written in English and illuminated. There has not been an enterprise of this scope since the advent of the printing press 500 hundred years ago. The monks commissioned the Welsh calligrapher to the Queen of England, Donald Jackson. He and his team have been working for the last five years and have three to go. This class will view the BBC production, The Illuminator, and talk about the incredible challenge of choosing materials and illustrations to convey the Word of God. We will look at copies of pages of the St. John's Bible and discuss this incredible project.

About the Teacher

Bonnie Noehr Bonnie has spent the last ten years studying calligraphy, attending international conferences and studying with some of the best teachers of the lettering arts. Her love of books and of Scripture combines to make this a very exciting project to follow. If there is interest, the class will also explore the tools used by modern day calligraphers and we will learn some skeletal letter forms.

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