The Decalogue. The Ten Commandments
Exhibition of one book

On 25 April 2006 an exhibition opened in the Church Anteroom of the Winter Palace (Room 270) dedicated to one book, The Decalogue. The Ten Commandments, prepared by the museum together with the Rare Book Publishing House of St Petersburg.

Every book issued by the publishing house of Peter Suspitsyn is an experiment to one extent or another. The Decalogue, which is the result of many years of work, is no exception. Most likely this is the first separate publication of one of the most famous fragments of the Old Testament (Exodus. 20:2-17).

The artist Mikhail Kopylkov has presented tablets consisting of ten sheepskin parchment sheets (corresponding to the number of commandments). In the center of the face side of each page there is a plate of bone porcelain in the shape of matzo on which a commandment written in ancient Hebrew has been set using the technique of overglaze decal (highly resistant image using special paints on a basis of metal salts that is then fired).

The original texts are accompanied by translations into seven languages: Greek, Latin, Russian, English, German, French and Spanish. The translations are printed on paper made by hand on an old press dating from the 19th century.
The book's binding is decorated with a bronze relief depicting tablets of the Old Testament on the background of a layer of matzo.
The case for the book, made of elm wood, imitates the Ark of the Old Testament.

The authors of the project directed their efforts at making the entire design of the publication, its color, and the texture of materials used recreate the historical color gamma and spirit of Genesis - the time when the Ten Commandments first appeared to mankind.

Copy N 1 is intended as a gift to the State Hermitage.

An exhibition catalogue entitled The Decalogue. The Ten Commandments has been prepared by the State Hermitage and the Rare Book of St Petersburg Publishing House. Introductory remarks to the catalogue were written by Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky. The authors of the articles are the Director of the Center of Biblical Studies and Judaica within the Philosophy Department of the St Petersburg State University I.R. Tantlevsky; Research Staff member of the St Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, S.M. Yakerson; and man of letters G.I. Kapelian..

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The exhibition catalogue

Vladimir Matveev, Deputy Director of the State Hermitage museum

Peter Suspitsyn

Artist Mikhail Kopylkov

At the exhibition