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• 1 2021-11-03T13:52:34-07:00 Where did this go? 11 plain 2023-01-14T10:21:49-08:00 By Emma VanSeveren '23
  
  The early ownership of the Morgan Bible is unclear.  Scholars believe that after the death of King Louis IX of France, the Morgan Bible was passed along to his younger brother Charles I.  It was probably under Charles I that the Latin text was added to the Bible.
  
  The first recorded owner of the Morgan Bible was Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, the Bishop of Poland. Maciejowski most likely obtained the Bible while studying for the priesthood in Italy.
  Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski in 1604 gifted the Bible to Shah Abbas; this is recorded on the first folio: “Bernard Maciejowski, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church, Bishop of Cracow, Duke of Siewierz, and Senator of the Kingdom of Poland with sincere wishes offers this gift to the supreme King of the Persians at Cracow the mother city of the kingdom of Poland on the seventh of September 1604.”
  
  In 1608, Shah Abbas, while in Persia, had the Persian inscriptions added to the Bible. At a later date in history, perhaps around 1722 when Afghans conquered Isfahan, the royal treasury and library were looted. The manuscript reached a Persian Jewish person, who then added the Judeo-Persian Inscriptions.
  Eventually, the manuscript reached Cairo, the capital of Egypt, where it was purchased by a British employed collector, John d’Athanasi.
  The manuscript was brought to London to be sold at auction. It was purchased by London dealers Payne and Foss, who then sold it to Sir Thomas Phillipps. Following his death, his daughter, Katherine inherited his belongings. 
  On December 10th, 1910, Sotheby’s, on behalf of the Phillipps Trustees, offered the manuscript to Pierpont Morgan for £10,000. At first, Morgan declined the sale and when he died in 1913, all new acquisitions to his collection stopped. After his death, the library and the collections were inherited by his son John Pierpont Morgan, Jr.; who eventually founded the Morgan Library in 1924. However, in 1916, Belle da Costa Greene, the librarian of the Morgan collection, had a second opportunity to buy the manuscript. She jumped at the chance at purchasing it for the original 1910 asking price, without waiting for permission from John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., Pierpont Morgan's son and heir. The Morgan Crusader Bible became the centerpiece of the Morgan collection and sparked J.P. Morgan's interest in continuing his father's work. 
  The 48 original folios of the Morgan Picture Bible no longer reside together as a full series. 43 folios find their home in Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City, while two folios reside in the National Library of France. The J. Paul Getty Museum is now home to a single folio. Two of the original folios are thought to be missing.  
  
   
• 1 2021-11-03T13:51:41-07:00 Where did this go? 7 plain 2023-01-14T10:22:21-08:00 by Augusta Holyfield '22
  
  After King Louis IX's death, ownership of the Crusader Bible may have been transferred to his brother, Charles of Anjou. Charles conquered Naples and probably brought the manuscript with him to Italy, where it received its Latin inscriptions. 
  
  The chain of ownership becomes fuzzy until the manuscript comes into the possession of Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, the Bishop of Cracow, Poland. Cardinal Maciejowski studied theology in Rome beginning in 1582, and it was during this time that he likely received the manuscript.
  The cardinal was a supporter of Sigismund III Vasa, the king of Poland, and in 1604, Maciejowski gifted the manuscript to Shah Abbas I of Persia as part of a diplomatic envoy. Around 1608, when the Shah finally received the Crusader Bible in Isfahan, Shah Abbas had the Persian inscriptions added. The manuscript remained in the royal library in Persia until 1722, when Afghans invaded the city and looted the treasury and library. Sometime after it was looted, a Persian Jew came into contact with the manuscript and added the Judeo-Persian inscriptions. 
  The Crusader Bible didn't reappear until the early 1800s, when John d’Athanasi, a Greek antiquities dealer, bought the manuscript from a merchant in Cairo for three shillings. In 1833, d'Athanasi sold the manuscript to the London dealers Payne and Foss through Sotheby's. Payne and Foss quickly sold it to the devoted manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps. The Crusader Bible remained in the Phillipps collection until 1910, when the Phillipps Trust offered the manuscript to Pierpont Morgan for £10,000. At first, Morgan declined the sale and when he died in 1913, all new acquisitions to his collection stopped. 
  However, in 1916, Belle da Costa Greene, the librarian of the Morgan collection, had a second opportunity to buy the manuscript. She jumped at the chance at purchasing it for the original 1910 asking price, without waiting for permission from John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., Pierpont Morgan's son and heir. The Morgan Crusader Bible became the centerpiece of the Morgan collection and sparked J.P. Morgan's interest in continuing his father's work.