Over three months, thousands of people visited Delémont, the capital of the Swiss canton of Jura, to see the Moutier-Grandval Bible, one of the oldest fully preserved illustrated Bibles in the world.

Between 8 March and 8 June, the Jura Museum of History and Art in Delémont welcomed over 18,000 visitors. “A huge number came from German-speaking Switzerland and France”, explained the museum's director, Nathalie Fleury.

Due to demand, those who booked a visit were only able to see the work in small groups for five minutes.

“The exhibition was really accessible to everyone, and if we weren't limited in terms of visitors per section, we would obviously have reached an even wider audience”, Fleury told the public Swiss Radio and Television (RTS).

This is not the first time that the Moutier-Grandval Bible has been on display in Delémont. In 1981, the manuscript was loaned to the museum for three months, where it was seen by more than 30,000 visitors.

‘On the trail of a masterpiece’

The presentation of the Moutier-Grandval Bible was accompanied by a temporary exhibition entitled On the trail of a masterpiece, which places the manuscript in its historical and artistic context.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors can see other contemporary manuscripts of the Moutier-Grandval Bible, as well as a selection of objects, such as tools used to make the pigments used in the illuminations, providing an insight into the techniques used at the time.

A ten-year process

The idea of returning the Bible to the place where it was preserved between the 10th and 19th centuries began ten years ago within the Office of Culture in the canton of Jura. “Initially, it was almost a dream, a utopia”, pointed out Martial Courtet, minister for education, culture and sport of Jura.

“For us, it is really the superlative exhibition in terms of exchanges and encounters […] a cultural and historical journey, from the Middle Ages to the present day”, underlined Fleury.

9th century Bible

Themanuscript, made of sheepskin, has 898 pages, weighs 22 kilos in total, and contains the Latin text of the Bible as revised by Alcuin of York, the abbot at Tours from 796 until his death in 804.

It was produced at the Abbey of Saint-Martin de Tours in France and then donated to the Abbey of Moutier-Grandval in the Swiss canton of Bern, which is now part of the town of Moutier.

During an invasion by French troops in the 18th century, the Bible ended up in Delémont, where it remained for several years before being sent to France. In 1973, it was entrusted to the British Library in London, where it remains to this day.

“Since at least the 19th century, its history and sumptuous illuminations have captivated experts. Transcribed by a score of copyist monks in the ninth century, this medieval masterpiece has travelled through time, and across borders, on a sometimes perilous, sometimes secret, but always fantastic journey to be discovered”, says the Jura Museum of History and Art.