World culture: Bible with Salvador Dali’s illustrations on display in Lvov

"Publishers Forum in Lvov" (Ukraine) has presented a unique Bible with illustrations of Spanish artist, Salvador Dali weighing 15.5 kg.

The presentation was held on September 13 in the Mirror Hall of the Pototski Palace. The book has a leather binding with Dali’s signature lettered in gold with precious inlays.

The number of copies of the Bible was limited – only 500 copies; it was published in Russian and included 105 illustrations. To print them, publishers used seven-color printing. The book was created in three countries: Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic.

The Bible contains the Old and New Testaments, which together account for 900 pages, 35 cm x 47 cm.

The book was presented by the Kharkov publishing, "Family Leisure Club."

The history of the book is the following: Giuseppe Alberetto, collector, a passionate fan of Dali and no less passionate Christian, invited the artist to illustrate the Bible. Only in two years Dali had created 105 canvases, and in 1965 in Italy were published first copies of the Bible. In the 1990-s it was published in Germany; in the early 2000-s the Bible was issued in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Despite the extraordinary personality of Salvador Dali, the Bible has been recognized by the Catholic Church, and there is a copy of it in the collection of Pope Benedict XVI.