A.R. Danziger, Art & Design

Today is the memorial of Saint Jerome, 340-420 A.D.  Both a scholarly world-traveler and a desert ascetic, he is perhaps best known for his work on the Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate. It began as a project to create a translation of the four Gospels using the best Greek texts. Already fluent in both Greek and Latin, he later expended great effort to learn spoken and written Hebrew from a Jewish convert to Christianity, and consulted with rabbis to ensure the accuracy of his translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. From the Catholic Encyclopedia: "To sum up, the Biblical knowledge of St. Jerome makes him rank first among ancient exegetes. In the first place, he was very careful as to the sources of his information. He required of the exegete a very extensive knowledge of sacred and profane history, and also of the linguistics and geography of Palestine. He never either categorically acknowledged or rejected the deuterocanonical books as part of the Canon of Scriptu

I don't typically think of Spain when I think about illuminated manuscripts. That is until I was recently researching manuscripts that specifically illustrate scenes from the book of Revelation (for my most recent work). The Silos Apocalypse was created around 1100 A.D. It's actually one of several illustrated copies of Saint Beatus of Liebana's Commentary on the Apocalypse . Beatus was a contemporary of Alcuin, a monk, theologian, and geographer. Flip through the pages yourself at the British Library website: Silos Apocalypse While you're browsing, you can listen to some Mozarabic Chant, the liturgical music of the Iberian region which predates the Visigoths. If you're wondering what the monks of Santo Domingo de Silos are up to nowadays, you might recall their 90's Billboard chart topping album, "Chant."