The Morgan Bible, also called the Morgan Picture Bible, Crusader Bible, Shah Abbas Bible or Maciejowski Bible, is a unique medieval illuminated manuscript. It is a picture book Bible consisting of 46 surviving folios. The book consists of miniature paintings of events from the Hebrew Bible, set in the scenery and costumes of thirteenth-century France, and depicted from a Christian perspective. It is not a complete Bible, as it consists largely of illustrations of stories of kings, especially King David. The illustrations are now surrounded by text in three scripts and five languages: Latin, Persian, Arabic, Judeo-Persian, and Hebrew. The level of detail in the images and the remarkable state of preservation of the work make it particularly valuable to scholars.
The end of the story of David and Absalom
A Siege, Samuel crowns Saul king, and they sacrifice together.
"The Israelites are repulsed from Ai" (fol. 10r)
The Morgan Library & Museum is a museum and research library at 225 Madison Avenue in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morgan, the institution has more than 350,000 objects. As of 2024, the museum is directed by Colin B. Bailey and governed by a board of trustees.
The main building
The Isaac Newton Phelps house at 231 Madison Avenue predates the rest of the Morgan Library & Museum.
The library c. 1910, shortly after its completion
J. P. Morgan's body being brought to his home and library after his death in Rome