Synopses & Reviews
The Bible has been called the best-selling book of all time, though the term itself comes from
biblia, Greek for a collection of books. The Bible developed gradually, over many centuries, as the result of cultural interaction and exchange among many different societies. Over time, some texts were accepted as part of the canon of belief, while others were excluded as apocryphal and heretical. Out of this rich diversity and cultural complexity emerged the modern Bible.
In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 tells the story of this formative period. The exhibition brings together a rare assemblage of several important early Hebrew and Christian bibles the first time many of these fragile treasures have been shown to the public. This exploration of the Bible's first thousand years also reveals the parallel development of the book one of the world's great technological revolutions.
From fragile fragments of papyrus and humble early parchment codices to resplendent illuminated manuscripts, In the Beginning presents the physical evidence of the earliest versions of both Bible and book. Some of these manuscripts have remained in ancient monastic libraries or cathedral treasuries since they were written. Others have languished, concealed in desert caves, sealed up in long-forgotten rooms, or buried to await resurrection by archaeologists. Each has its own distinctive a tale to tell.
Synopsis
A companion volume to a major exhibition assembles seventy of the world's most significant biblical codices, reproducing in lavish detail an assemblage of rare scriptural copies, papyrus scraps, and vellum artifacts, complemented by authoritarian essays on the Bible's thousand-year transformation into a complex symbol of faith.
Synopsis
In The Beginning presents the physical evidence of the Bible's evolution, assembled for the first time. It shows how the Bible mirrors successive ages and shapes societies by charting its initial fluidity, attempts to define its contents, and its dissemination through the use of local languages, scripts and ornament.
Synopsis
This is the companion volume to a major exhibition at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery that assembles, for the first time, seventy of the most important biblical codices in the world.
Though the Bible has been called teh best– selling book of all time, the term itself comes from the Greek for a collection of books. The Bible that we know today was compiled over centuries and comprises numerous components, from the books associated with Moses to the Gospels credited to the Four Evangelists.
IN THE BEGINNING gathers many of the most important early witnesses to the Hebrew and Christian bibles. The physical evidence for the earliest copies of scriptures is fragmentary and partial, from scraps of fragile papyrus to battered vellum codices. Here they are preserved in a sumptuously illustrated volume that captures this formative period of human history. Three leading authorities in the field explore the Bible through its first thousand years, revealing both its transformation into a complex symbol of fatih and the parallel evolution of the book as a medium for the transmission of information– – one of the greatest technological revolutions the world has ever known.
Synopsis
Michelle Brown, former curator at the British Library, gathers together seventy fragile biblical treasures in this sumptuously illustrated volume that captures the development of both Bible and book, as well as a formative period of early Christian history. The book features a number of rare parchments, codices, illuminated manuscripts, and jeweled bindings, including new finds from the Monastery of St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai, Egypt, and the Niketas Bible of the 10th-century CE, one of the greatest examples of Byzantine illumination. Leading authorities in the field explore the early history of the Bible in the accompanying essays, revealing its transformation into the complex symbol of faith that it is today.
About the Author
Michelle P. Brown is Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies, University of London; Visiting Professor, Leeds University; Regional Programmes (and formerly Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts), British Library; Lay Canon and Chapter Member of Saint Paul's Cathedral, London.