Historic Saint John's Bible On Display At Jesuit High School

TAMPA, FL -- Jesuit High School in Tampa will be home to a Heritage Edition of the Saint John’s Bible for the next three to five years.

Jesuit is only the second high school to host a Saint John’s Bible.

The Saint John’s Bible is the first handwritten, illuminated Bible of monumental size (all seven
volumes and 1,165 pages of each edition are 2 by 3 feet) to be commissioned by a Benedictine
Monastery in more than 500 years – since the invention of the printing press.

It features exquisite calligraphy, vibrant imagery and stunning gold and silver illuminations.

The Bible is a gift to Jesuit from Jeffrey and Susan Turner, the parents of a current Jesuit student.

After years of discussion and planning, in 1998 the Saint John’s Bible project was launched,
commissioned by Saint John’s Abbey and University in Minnesota. It was created over the next
decade in a scriptorium in Wales by master calligrapher Donald Jackson, the official scribe to
Queen Elizabeth II. Jackson and his team employed techniques used in the creation of ancient
illuminated manuscripts such as quills on calf-skin vellum, gold and platinum leaf and hand-ground pigments, along with modern technology such as computers to plan the layout and line breaks for the text, illuminating the Word of God for a new millennium.

The original work resides at Saint John’s University, but 299 fine art Heritage Editions have
been created – no more will be produced – and are placed in religious, arts, academic, healing and literary institutions around the word.

The first was presented to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2008 and resides at the Vatican Library and Vatican Museum of Art. Other locations in the U.S. include Yale University, Marquette University and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Florida (Jacksonville) and Arizona.

Founded in 1899, Jesuit High School in Tampa is a private, all-male Catholic high school rooted in the Jesuit tradition of education.

The Bible is accessible every day at the school.

For more information, click here.