Meeting Minutes 9 May 2023
Recorded by Candy Entingh
Linda and Rich Page attended our 5/9/2023 Summit Scribes meeting as docents of the first of their seven (7) folios of Donald Jackson’s Saint John’s Bible, Heritage Edition. The folio is on tour and when all 7 of the folios are obtained, they will be permanently housed and on display at Saint Michael’s Episcopal Church here in Colorado Springs, CO.
A 45-minute video was shown to us to start off our meeting. This film was produced by the BBC and followed Donald Jackson’s beginnings with the project in 1998 at his home in Wales, all the way through to the completed folios being presented to the Benedictine monks at Saint John’s University in Minnesota, USA. To create a Bible that would capture the beauty and tradition of centuries of liturgy and carry it into the future—that was the vision that united a calligrapher in Wales with this group of Benedictine monks in Minnesota. The Saint John’s Bible is the first completely handwritten and illuminated Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine abbey since the invention of the printing press. The project was headed by Donald Jackson, and work on the manuscript took place in both Wales and Minnesota. I was in awe that in the preliminary stages of choosing the calfskin vellum hides, that even a tiny flaw in the very edge of the skin kept it from being selected. There were 6 calligraphers chosen from among many, only these were able to copy the unique hand of script that Jackson had created for this project. All calligraphy was written using hand cut goose quills. Only 6 artists working on the illustrations for the Bible. It took 2 years to finish just the layout, and 11 years to finish. Interestingly, facing pages were both done by the same calligrapher so that the writing would be the same on both pages keeping the symmetry of writing the same to the viewer.
The Saint John’s Bible Heritage Program is an international initiative for individuals and institutions to explore the artistic and spiritual beauty of The Saint John’s Bible with fine art limited editions created under the direction of Donald Jackson. The folio is printed on 100% cotton paper the same thickness and feel as the original calfskin used in the Bible. The gold has been added by embossing. As if you are viewing the shadow of an illumination from the back on the original, so has the shadow been printed on the back of the page that is illuminated on the folio. Such attention to detail.
Linda and Rich Page will be receiving all 7 folios soon and when they do, we will set up another time to view them all!
