Italian Giant Bibles and Blank Books: Links
Friday links:
"Italian Giant Bibles, Lay Patronage, and Professional Workmanship." You had me at Giant. This is a fascinating academic piece on the creation and distribution of a group of medieval manuscript Bibles:
In each Bible, the texts are ornamented with large, painted initials composed of vividly colored patterns – stylized leaves, flowers, interlace – arranged in long rectangular or curving fields and bordered by fine yellow bands that typically bend into crown-like knots at the letter’s extremities. Inspired by the decorative repertoire of Carolingian Tours, these “Geometrical” letters, as Edward Garrison baptized them, counterbalance the unadorned solemnity of the main script, a large-lobed late Caroline minuscule devoid of obvious regional or local traits (minuscola carolina non-tipizzata). Roman capitals occasionally mixed with uncial spell out the tituli and incipits in minium, black ink, or an alternation of the two.
"Blank Books." (h/t: 18th Century Bibles) Since I've been writing quite a bit about notebooks and such at my other blog, these exquisite blank books caught my attention. On one of the half calf bindings with your choice of marbled paper would be a very nice way to keep notes. Check out the mottled brown leather in the photos -- I love that!
J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.
Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.
Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
