The Saint John's Bible is the first completely handwritten and illuminated Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine abbey since the invention of the printing press. The project was headed by Donald Jackson, and work on the manuscript took place in both Wales and Minnesota. Work on the 1,100 page Bible began in 1998 when it was commissioned by the Benedictine monks at Saint John's University, and was completely finished in December 2011 at a total cost of over $8 million. The Saint John's Bible is divided into seven volumes and is two feet tall by three feet wide when open. The book is written on vellum by quill, containing 160 illuminations across its seven volumes, and uses the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE) of the Bible. A copy of The Saint John's Bible has been presented to the Pope at the Vatican in several volumes, with the final volume presented on April 17, 2015.