Pope handed bible 'work of art'

The Bible is the calligraphic artist's supreme challenge, a daunting task Donald Jackson

A copy of a handwritten illustrated bible that has taken almost 10 years to create has been described by Pope Benedict XVI as a "work for eternity".

The £2.7m project is the work of Monmouthshire-based artist Donald Jackson and his team of calligraphers.

Mr Jackson, senior scribe to the Queen, was commissioned by Benedictine monks of St John's Abbey in Minnesota, US.

The Pope was handed a full-sized reproduction of the seven-volume St John's Bible weighing 50lb (22.7kg).

The bible contains more than 1,000 pages and 160 illuminations - illustrations crafted using hand-cut feather quills in the same way as in medieval times.

As he turned the pages, the Pope described the bible as "a work of art, a great work of art".

The presentation occurred in a private audience at the Vatican in Rome during the annual meeting of the Papal Foundation.

Mr Jackson, the creative force behind the Bible, has described working on the project as his "Sistine Chapel".

One of the 160 illuminations in the Saint John's Bible

He said: "If you're a calligrapher, and I've been one since I was about nine years of age, it's the calligrapher's Sistine Chapel.

"The bibles and the wonderful works of the past have always been the inspiration for lettering artists and calligraphers, so that's always the one you'd love to do.

"I just asked a monastery in the United States if they'd like to have me do it. I just happened to ask at the right time."

The reproduction given to the Pope is one of just 12 copies of the St Peter Apostles edition of the Bible.

Mr Jackson and his team are still working in Monmouth on last two volumes of the bible, which will be kept at Saint John's University in Minnesota.

University president Brother Dietrich Reinhart, said: "From the time that Donald Jackson inscribed the first words of the bible, this has been meant as a bible for all people, a gift to the world.

"Now, after several years of anticipation, our dream of sharing the Bible worldwide has become a reality."