{"id":6522,"date":"2019-08-09T10:30:03","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T09:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/?p=6522"},"modified":"2021-02-15T18:28:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T17:28:11","slug":"vienna-genesis-quaternio-facsimile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/vienna-genesis-quaternio-facsimile\/","title":{"rendered":"Quaternio’s Vienna Genesis: A Step Closer to the Original 6th-Century Jem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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More than 1500 years have gone by since illuminators in Antioch, Syria, decorated the folios of the Vienna Genesis with strikingly lifelike characters<\/strong>. The plant and mineral pigments still shine as brightly as in the days of early Christianity, yet the thin parchment, originally dyed purple<\/strong> to celebrate Emperor Justinian I<\/strong>, has darkened to changing shades of brown, with holes<\/strong> resulting from corrosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The volume, considered the oldest surviving purple manuscript<\/a><\/strong> and unparalleled cultural heritage, is safely kept under lock and key in the sumptuous Austrian National Library<\/strong> in Vienna. For those who would like to lay their hands on this masterpiece of Western culture, there is only one possible chance: getting hold of one of its facsimile editions. However, not every replica is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first one was produced in 1980 by Insel Verlag<\/strong>, a major German publishing house that released its earliest facsimile \u2013 St Matthew Passion<\/em> by Johann Sebastian Bach \u2013 as far back as 1922. The 1980<\/strong> version of the Vienna Genesis reproduces the size and color of the original, with collotype facsimile pages printed on a larger grey background<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n