The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible

"The Morgan Picture Bible was designed to bring selected Old Testament stories into the thirteenth-century present of its original audience. The creators' original intention was to make these stories not only powerful and meaningful, but also as appealing and entertaining as possible by placing biblical heroes in contemporary settings." The Book of Kings provides the reader with unique insights into the politics, religion, and culture of thirteenth-century France. Eight essays by noted scholars of history and art history bring the court and crusades of King Louis IX (later Saint Louis) to life. Moreover, they demonstrate the relevance of Old Testament stories and imagery both in thirteenth-century France and in seventeenth-century Iran, when the Picture Bible belonged to the great Safavid ruler Shah 'Abbas. Furthermore, the catalogue section follows the path of the exhibition, which displays folios of the Picture Bible alongside a variety of other works in other media. The volume is beautifully illustrated with full-color images of over fifty folios, evoking the color and richness of the original.

Dr. William Noel is Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Walters Art Museum and an expert on the late medieval illuminated manuscripts of northern Europe. He has organized manuscript exhibitions both in the United States and in Europe Dr. Daniel Weiss is Dean of the Faculty of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University and is the world's leading authority on the Morgan Picture Bible. Other contributors include: Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith of Cambridge University; Roger Wieck, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at The Morgan Library; Kelly Holbert, Assistant Curator for Medieval Art at the Walters; Cathleen A. Fleck, Visiting Assistant Curator of Manuscripts at the Walters; Richard Leson, Hall Curatorial Fellow at the Walters; C. Griffith Mann, Zanvyl Krieger Curatorial Fellow at the Walters; Stephen Fliegel of the Cleveland Museum of Art; M. Shreve Simpson, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Center for Visual Arts of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.; William C. Jordan, Professor of History at Princeton University; Gary Vikan, Director of the Walters.