Religious Italian origin Brit takes 10 years to copy every word of Bible

London, Sept. 8 (ANI): An Italian emigrant in Britain has finally completed copying every single word of the Bible onto 1500 A4 size pages after a span of ten years.

Dino Mazzoli, 78, came up with the idea of copying the Bible after his mobility problems left him housebound in 2001. He then wrote it out using hundreds of Parker pens and sketching out more than 5,000 colourful illustrations.

Mazzoli, who now wants to sell his unique book for charity, got a letter from the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, after finishing his work - believed to be a world first.

Mazzoli, who moved to England in 1961, said, "I have dedicated my whole life to this for years, and have done it every single day I could"

"I know it is perhaps considered old-fashioned, but I am a Christian, and this was something I wanted to do," the Daily Mail quoted him, as saying.

"It is unique - people have told me that they have not seen anything like it before, he said.

The grandfather-of-three copied the Bible from the American copy of the Old Testament and a British version of the New Testament.

Mazzoli, who is also a keen artist, then created illustrations, using watercolours, crayons and collages, which he cut and stuck in his Bible.

"I would start every morning, do 8 a.m. until 10 or 11 a.m., again in the afternoon, and then, for a long time in the evening," he said.

"I started on Genesis and just kept going. I put four to five illustrations on each page of the text, then a larger drawing every five pages or so. I put quite a lot of energy into it," he revealed.

One larger drawing has a line from Revelation 2:7 along with a picture of Holocaust victim Anne Frank on its side, another one is inspired by William Blake.

His children, Laura, 38, and Marco, 36, are planning to publish it both in print form, on the iPad and as an eBook. They are only waiting for the final copyright permission to come through after using text from an American-based translation.

"I won't make a penny from it. I want the proceeds to be divided up between charities, including Save the Children. My son sent it to Rome and I got a letter back thanking me for taking the time to do it.

"I also got a letter from and Archbishop and the Jerusalem Bible makers. They said they had never seen anything like it.

"I didn't realise the Bible was subject to copyright but we are expecting the permission to come through soon so it could be printed later this year. I will keep painting. I do pictures for friends and love painting my family. I can't go out any more because of my health, but I still have my painting and I am thankful for that," he added. (ANI)