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• 1 2021-11-03T13:49:17-07:00 What is this? 44 plain 2023-01-14T08:25:36-08:00 By Emma VanSeveren '23
  
  
  The Morgan Bible is a medieval picture Bible that contains over 380 scenes from the Old Testament. The illuminated manuscript brings alive the biblical stories in a thirteenth-century French setting. Most of its stories are dedicated to kings or heroes, especially King David. Forty percent of the pages in this manuscript are dedicated to David, who was a king of the Israelites and who established Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This page, folio13r, relates events from the Book of Judges. The protagonist in these events is Gideon; a historically timid yet praised judge who ruled over Israel. This page of the Morgan Picture Bible illustrates both triumph and defeat in battle in order to demonstrate the importance of religion in the Crusades.
  
  In the upper left, Gideon and his companions arrive at the altar of Baal, a pagan god, and begin to shatter the altar as instructed by God. In the upper right, Gideon is guided by an angel to assemble an army with the golden trumpet. 
  
  In the lower half of the manuscript, Gideon relies only on three hundred men to defeat the Midianite army as they cry aloud: “the Sword of the Lord and Gideon.”
  
  The thematic connection between the battles of the Old Testament and the Crusades in thirteenth-century France suggest that the people of France who viewed this manuscript used these biblical events to think about current events.
  
   
• 1 2021-11-03T13:52:56-07:00 What does this tell us about the Crusades? 11 plain 2023-01-14T09:15:36-08:00 By Emma VanSeveren '23
  
  The presumed patron of the Morgan Picture Bible, King Louis IX, “took greatest personal interest in religious commissions that reflected both his extreme personal piety and his desire to elevate the status of the monarchy through close association with the divine.” In other words, King Louis IX was dedicated to religious commissions that could outline his militant Christian kingship, while his leadership in the crusades would achieve this ideal as reality.
  In the decade following Louis’s decision to embark on crusade, the royal chapel Sainte-Chapelle and the Morgan Picture Bible were produced. Both of these affirmed the king's crusading ideals.
  The use of the Old Testament in the Morgan Picture Bible suggests the importance of historical kingship and holy war in medieval France. The Morgan Bible presents themes such as the “historical inevitability of war, the nature of sacrifice and unpredictability of God’s will, and the responsibilities of sacred kingship.” The emphasis on holy war is seen on this page by the destruction of a pagan statue, the assembly of an army, and a miraculous victory during war.
  
  This page displays an epic battle, soldiers, horses, and a moment of religious resolution; but most importantly, it showcases the violent nature of the military. This page illustrates the religious conviction that controlled the Crusades; establishing that the violence had a purpose.