In 1998 Saint John's University commissioned calligrapher Donald Jackson to produce a fully illuminated luxury manuscript of the Bible. Jackson and his team of artists completed the Saint John's Bible in May 2011, ensuring that the exquisite art of illumination—so richly represented in the Morgan's collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts—lives on into the twenty-first century.
To document Jackson's monumental achievement, the university has published several facsimiles of the manuscript, including the lavish seven-volume Apostles Edition, issued in only twelve copies. Dr. William F. Hueg and Mrs. Hella Mears Hueg have presented to the Morgan a set of the Apostles Edition, five volumes of which have appeared to date.
The Morgan celebrates this generous gift with the display of the Prophets volume, as well as one of Jackson's preliminary studies for the Gospel of John frontispiece, on loan from the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.
Artist Donald Jackson used a wide range of materials to illuminate The Saint Johns Bible, including red vermillion pigment from in the 1870s used for bullets and footnotes.
Copyright © Michael Freeman, Michael Freeman Photography , London, England.