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August 12, 2003
Benjamin Withers, assistant professor of fine arts, was one of 34 faculty members to receive research grants in the third round of funding through the university’s Arts and Humanities Initiative. The grant pays for travel and research costs.
Withers’s grant is for the continued study and digital photography of the Old English Hexateuch in the British Library. The 1000-year-old illustrated text contains the first six books of the Bible and is a precursor to other early Bibles such as the King James Bible. Withers said the book was used as teaching tool. People gathered around as a learned person read from the book.
It is believed that monks produced the manuscript in Canterbury between 1000 and 1050 A.D.
“My project is to photograph the text and illustrations for future scholars” and to “prevent further damage to the manuscript,” he said.
Withers will use the images along with a team of experts to study the manuscript further with an attentive eye to language, art and culture.
He has been studying the text when he was a graduate student. “I had seen the images before from the book but nothing prepares you when you open it for the first time.”
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