Review of Ancient Manuscript

Lisbon Hebrew Bible

Completed in 1482, the Lisbon Bible is a testimony to the rich cultural life the Portuguese Jews experienced prior to the expulsion and forced conversions of December 1496. Now that I have been introduced to the four basic design principles, I was able to identify them in the images that the Lisbon Hebrew Bible portrays. It is a magnificent book that contains an enormous amount of symbolism and history. The author makes the viewer understand the significance of the manuscript by reflecting it with artistic detail. These consisted on the use of sharp contrast and brilliant vivid colors in every page.  The Star of David appears several times on the front cover design, for a total of nine times. The cover seems to be composed of leather with gold embossed designs. Each of the four corners includes a gold emblem that is repeated again in a large rectangle placed in the center of the design. The text is always centered on the page, and most pages have text bordered by local floral designs. Most of the pages were done in two column formats, and a few pages with like charts of some kind, and these had multiple columns. Even the pages that did not contain full borders had some type of floral design. The layout let the eye always know what to expect and where to find the information. It seemed that the blocks of large colored text indicated the beginning of a new chapter. This highlights key areas for the reader and allows the reading to emphasize key information, and/or the beginning/end of a new chapter. Since the text is written in Hebrew it is difficult to understand the content of the writing.

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/lisbon/accessible/introduction.htm