|
2011 marks the
four hundredth anniversary of the King James Bible.
Exhibitions, conferences and lectures world-wide trace
the production and use of Bibles in Scotland, revealing
how this country has truly become a nation of the Book.
The connection between Scotland and the Bible, however,
predates the Reformation. Even before print and vernacular
translations put Bibles in the ploughboy's hand, the
Bible was read and studied, painted on church walls
and preached from pulpits across Scotland. Medieval
manuscripts demonstrate time and again the extent to
which Scotland was ‘biblically-saturated' well before
the sixteenth century. From biblical allusions in the
Declaration of Arbroath to Bibles owned by monarchs,
laymen and monks, evidence abounds for the production
and use of Scottish Bibles. Such wealth of customs and
manuscripts has not yet been subject to scholarly analysis.
To date there is no work on the Bible in medieval Scotland,
and biblical manuscripts in collections throughout Scotland
are little known. This project, generously supported
by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland,
is centred at the University of Edinburgh and relies
on a collaboration between universities across Scotland
to shed new light on this neglected aspect of Scottish
culture and religion. More information can be
found on the Project's website (http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/projects/medieval_bible/Welcome.html)
and on its blog (http://scotbible.wordpress.com/)
|
