Morgan Bible

Description

The work known as the Morgan Bible, Crusader Bible, or Maciejowski Bible is part ofthe Pierpont Morgan Library in, New York (Ms M. 638). It is a medieval picture Bible of 46 folios. The book consists of paintings of events from Hebrew scripture, set in the scenery and customs of thirteenth-century France, depicted from a Christian perspective, and surrounded by text in three scripts and five languages: Latin, Persian, Arabic, Judeo-Persian, and Hebrew.

History

Originally, the bible probably contained only paintings, organized in a consistent visual rhythm from page to page. Within 100 years, the book acquired marginal inscriptions in Latin describing the scenes illustrated. Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, Bishop of Kraków, had the book given as a gift to Abbas I (Shah of Persia) in 1608. Abbas ordered inscriptions in Persian to be added, mostly translating the Latin ones already there. Later, perhaps in the eighteenth century, inscriptions were added in Judeo-Persian.

Authorship

This book has long been thought to have been created under the direction of Louis IX of France in the mid-1240s, but Allison Stones, after indications of others such as François Avril, has argued that it was most likely illuminated in the northern counties of France, ca. 1250.

Collections

Forty-three folios are kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library. Two folios are kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (MS nouv. acq. lat. 2294). A single folio is kept in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (MS 16).