Lisbon Hebrew Bible reading

1.    Describe your first impression of these ancient works in respect to design

2.    Identify examples of each of the four principles of design

What  techniques did the authors/artists employ to help us  understand the importance of those manuscripts/books

The Lisbon Hebrew Bible, at first glance, looks like any other set of holy manuscripts.  This is quite the contrary, as this particular work is the most accomplished codex version of the Hebrew Bible.  This work was copied from the scrolls to text form by Samuel the Scribe and designed beautifully by a team of Portuguese artists.  With this knowledge, I took a look inside the book to see for myself this manuscript.  My first impression was to be quite impressed, both by the history but also by the design of the bible.  The calligraphic designs on the border are incredible, and definitely a good display of Portuguese culture, which focuses a lot on nature and art.  In some ways, it reminds me of designs seen inside Mosques and in Islamic art, as it is against their beliefs to re-create living creatures in their art, so they focus a lot on garden scenes and the like.  As the Iberian Peninsula was heavily populated by the Moors until 1492, this isn’t surprising.  It looks as if the ancient world also placed a large importance on repetitive and/or contrasting design in order to make the pages stand out.  Since I do not read Hebrew and there are no translations available, I can only guess that the more detailed the designs and contrasting the colors, the more important the page.  When something is important, it is important for it to stand out, so the contrasting designs would make sense.

In terms of the four principals of design, contrast is found everywhere.  The colors of the border around each page of scripture contrast with the color of both the text and the page, thereby making it stand out from everything else.  The borders are also augmented by gray and gold areas, such as the ones found on pages 16 and 17, and the darker ones found on 18 and 19.  These contrasting designs actually are also repetitive a well.  By this, I mean that each page has some sort of border, and the gold and red borders all have different meanings (red for a prophet, for example).  This adds to the overall design by establishing a pattern, of meaning and of highlighting text.  Also, the text itself is all gold, which I believe signifies the value in the words of the scripture itself.  The gold words against green, red and darker gold border really establish a pleasing pattern and makes everything stand out.  The alignment of the text is what stands out about the design, as well as the careful placement.  Samuel copied the text in one column, making it easier to read and also neater to even the most untrained eye.  In terms of the proximity, the text is tight and close together, which makes sense since all of the text is scripture, and the borders are close to the text as well, which gives the impression the colors denote the different sections of the Hebrew Bible.

 Samuel the Scribe and his partner artists use more contrast and repetition than anything else in order to convey the importance of the various parts of scripture.  He also uses these elements to convey the Portuguese influence in this work.  The designs within the pages are prime examples of the culture, and they also serve to separate the Torah from the Prophets.  These contrasts and repetitions are key in understanding not only the work itself, but also the cultural importance of this work as one of the most important from the Iberian Peninsula.