A BIBLE, THE OLD FASHIONED WAY

Before there was Gutenberg there were innumerable anonymous scribes who beautifully wrote the Bible letter by letter with pen (quill, stylus) and ink. For centuries that process largely has been abandoned. In Minnesota Donald Jackson is reviving the process on a grand scale with the St. John's Bible:

As Donald Jackson and his scribes worked on a handwritten and "illuminated" Bible, they used an image unavailable to the monks of the Middle Ages: a view of Earth taken from space.

It's one of the many modern touches in The St. John's Bible, from using computers to lay out pages to using "virtual voice prints" of chanting monks, Buddhists and Native Americans in several artworks....

But this Bible -- thought to be the first of its kind commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in 500 years -- is still done the old-fashioned way, with every letter and illustration painstakingly drawn by hand.

Jackson and his team of artists in Monmouth, Wales, use quills cut from goose or swan feathers. Ancient inks are prepared using the yolks of eggs from free-range chickens near Jackson's scriptorium as a binder. The words are written on large sheets of prepared vellum, or calfskin, which are then illuminated or brought to light with gold, silver or platinum to form dazzling artwork.

It's an eight-year project costing $4 million. The final product will be housed at St. John's University north of Minneapolis. Time to plan that trip to the midwest, I guess.

For pictures, visit the official site.