Comparison Essay

The Polyglot Bible and Word Bible Designs

By: Emily Pryor

The Polyglot Bible printed by Christophe Plantin and Word Bible Designs by Jim LePage are two comparative interpretations of the bible represented in different design forms.  Plantin’s bible is historical for printing the religious text side by side in five different languages, making it monumental in the design world. LePage’s visual representations of the books of the bible address the biblical text differently. His designs, some of which are controversial, interpret the books of the bible as a whole, and summarize their meaning within a single spread.

Published between 1569 and 1572, Christophe Plantin’s Polyglot Bible was created on a grand scale.  Aiming to print the original text of the Old Testament and the New Testament on a scientific basis, Plantin received support from King Philip II of Spain, who sent him Benito Arias Montano to lead the editing of the bible. Montano is often credited as to the reason Plantin was able to finish designing and printing the bible within so few years.

The holy text is printed side by side in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin typefaces, which are cut to mechanical and aesthetic perfection, marking the advancement of print technology at the time. The distance print technology had come from a little over a hundred years since its invention is vast. The textual apparatus of the book has been fully established, in tact with running heads, page numbers, attribution of authorship, glosses, line numbering, cross references, and multiple other useful elements that are integral parts of the design scheme.

This work tributes Plantin as an intelligent businessman, designer, and printer, as the complexity of the bible’s pages are marked with an artful elegance within the work as a whole. Plantin is renowned for his beautiful and accurate execution with his work. Although, the Polyglot Bible earned Plantin very little profit. King Philip II did, however, grant Plantin with the privilege of printing all of the Roman Catholic liturgical books, such as the missals and breviaries, for the states ruled by King Philip and the office of prototypo-graphus regius.

Approaching the religious text in a different method, Jim LePage’s goal of his Word Bible Designs is to summarize the bible and create a visual representation that encourages viewers to not be intimidated to read the text. As someone who practices religion, LePage admits to reading the bible on and off, and becoming really bored with it, which lead to him wanting to create exciting and engaging designs that portray the text in a different light. As a solution to his lack of self-discipline, LePage believed that if he read the bible with a goal in mind- to create designs based on the message- that he could me more successful. From this, his series of Word Bible Designs was born.

Because this work is a series, it’s important to look in depth into at least one single design. His design for 1 Timothy alludes to the part of the book that speaks about women being submissive to men, along with an entire set of rules that were to be enforced on women. To quote the bible, it states in Timothy 2:11 that, “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.” Among the other rules mentioned, it says that women should not braid their hair, nor wear jewelry or expensive clothes. LePage’s design addresses the fact that most people understand that those rules were specific to the culture of the time and not a part of God’s eternal commandments. However, whenever it comes to women submitting to men, it is often preached as if that were one of the eternal commandments.

LePage’s design is meant to grab the viewer’s attention and raise controversy. He is addressing a taboo subject. He is questioning the bible, which even today, can be controversial. His design has the symbol of feminism that encircles the words “1 Timothy”. From the perpendicular lines of the symbol, LePage lets the viewer read it as a “T” by adding a “W” in front and a “F’ behind it. The arrow that leads from the “WTF” to “1 Timothy” immediately says that a disputable subject is being questioned.

Similar to how LePage originally started this project to interest himself in reading further into the bible, his designs are meant to influence others to do the same. The purpose of his attention grabbing representation is to have viewers read deeper into the text, and realize that this commonly misinterpreted verse, in relation to the other rules mentioned, actually refers to prostitutes. Therefore, in today’s world the rules would change, to mean, as LePage says it, “don’t show up to church in a bikini or speedo.”

Both Plantin and LePage represent the bible in different ways, but ultimately accomplish the same goal. Plantin, who takes a more direct approach, translates the bible in an accurate, thorough method. His precision with his typeface choices and printing accuracy reflects this approach. Comparatively, LePage addresses the text in a more imaginative manner, taking hold of his viewer’s attention by designing exciting and engaging pieces of work. Both designers planned their versions of the bible so that anyone could read the text. Plantin, using translation, made the text available to people who spoke on of five different languages, while LePage purposefully made a design for each book of the bible that would grab attention and encourage people to read the bible. Plantin’s can be credited with making the text readily available to anyone who spoke either of the five languages in which the bible was printed. He helped make the text readable for more people. LePage also accomplishes this by creating designs that give a summary of each book of the bible upon first glance. And, with his engaging designs, it can encourage people similar to LePage himself, who get bored with reading the bible, to become more interested in it again. Plantin helped spread the religious text in the 1500s, and LePage is accomplishing the same task, only in a different manner, today.

Another similarity between Plantin’s bible and LePage’s Word Bible Design are their use of typography. Plantin was very meticulous with his typesetting when printing his bible, only hiring the best artists of the time to help cut them to perfection. His also took his type decoration very seriously. By being so precise with his typography, Plantin’s Polyglot Bible eventually became a milestone for typography during this time. Similarly, LePage’s careful use of typography is also a vital part of his interpretation of the religious text. In the 1 Timothy design, Lepage uses a handwriting typeface to show that the reader is who will question the word of the bible. The use of this handwriting font makes the viewer feel like it is acceptable to question the text, and the typeface using looks similar to how someone would annotate a book. This careful choice helps the design achieve his goal, similar to how Plantin’s precision affected his work positively.

For our written assignment in History of Graphic Design, students were asked to select two similar documents to compare and contrast in a well designed and well written essay. I wrote about the similarities and differences in Christophe Plantin's Polyglot Bible and Jim LePage's Word Bible Designs. Image are included for reference.