Leaf from the Morgan Picture Bible

Unknown

about 1250

Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink, Tempera Colors, Ink

J. Paul Getty Museum

Two registers depict scenes of battle and figures on horseback. The upper register shows a chaotic cavalry charge, while the lower register features a procession of mounted soldiers and a seated figure. The Morgan Picture Bible stood over a foot tall and contained more than 380 scenes from the Old Testament, extending from the story of Creation to the reign of King David. Though it originally consisted exclusively of pictures with no accompanying text, three sets of captions were later added to the leaves, summarizing the contents of the images. Scribes in southern Italy added inscriptions in Latin around 1300, and inscriptions in Persian and Judeo-Persian--Persian written in the Hebrew alphabet--were added in the 1600s. Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, Bishop of Cracow, Poland, presented the Morgan Picture Bible to the Persian ruler