EDLD 5366 The Lisbon Bible

One of my graduate assignments was to review some ancient manuscripts and analyze them for the principles of graphic design. One of the first things I noticed about the Lisbon Bible is the use of repitition. The book is beautifully designed. The calligraphy is fantastic. The cover is repeated gold stars and a circular pattern. The interior pages have a variety of floral patterns around the text, but while the patterns themselves are different, their placement, general style, and borders are repetitive. Alignment is also important in this text as the columns are consistent in length and width throughout the pages. In most cases the top and bottom borders match and the width of the floral border around the text is the same. Contrast is achieved by use of different colors in the borders and border text on many of the pages. Proximity is achieved because each passage flows to the next with no effort. The larger colored text areas are centered within the text to allow the reader to examine them and move smoothly back to the text. The artist for this bible used the gold borders to constrain the text areas and give emphasis and importance to the text included inside. The use of the floral borders also seemed to indicate the importance of the text to the author.