ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA.- St. Petersburg.- The Hermitage Museum presents the exhibit “The Decalogue: The Ten Commandments Exhibition of One Book”. 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.