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].
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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/
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.
Could I text Jesus and ask him about the translation? What is his favorite show?
Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript
Brought Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis to my mind. Maybe not your mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Genesis_(comic)
My favorite Crumb is 'the polkadotted demon goes to church'
It's almost like the message of Genesis is "y'all need Jesus" or something.
How far would a father go to save his children is another way to look at it.
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.
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.
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.
Mohamed would probably summarily have you killed, if that alters your perspective at all
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.