The Morgan Leaf, from the Winchester Bible: Frontispiece for 1 Samuel with Life of David (v.), ca. 1150–80
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The Morgan Leaf (pictured above) was the last and greatest single leaf acquired by financier John Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913). (Morgan's collection later became the Morgan Library and Museum.) The twelfth-century Winchester Bible, the largest and finest English Romanesque Bible was begun in around 1160, but was never finished. Although full-page miniatures were not originally planned for the Bible, drawings for four of them were made. Only two were finished: those on the Morgan Leaf.
The Morgan Leaf was probably removed from the Bible in 1820. At this time the manuscript was rebound into three volumes and the new numbering for the folios did not include the leaf. According to William Morris's secretary, Sydney Cockerell, the Florentine dealer Leo Olschki offered Morris (the celebrated English designer and promoter of medievalism who died in 1896) the leaf for £100 (date unknown), but he could not afford to buy it. Subsequently, it was offered and sold to Morgan in 1912 for 30,000 francs.
According to Olschki's letter of April 10, 1912, to Morgan's librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, Morgan had visited Olschki the previous day and purchased a "large twelfth-century illuminated leaf (both sides illuminated)" on the spot. The framed leaf was shipped on the SS Principe di Piemonte out of Genoa, Italy. The invoice made no claim as to the country of origin, however; in an early Morgan accession book, where the leaf had the number M.513, it was described as "Italian?, XII century."
In 1926, the British Museum's Keeper of Manuscripts Eric Millar first recognized the leaf's connection with two of the artists of the Winchester Bible, but he did not propose that it had once part of that celebrated manuscript. The Morgan's publications were also cautious, pointing out that the capituli, or chapter headings, for the Book of Samuel were not lacking in the Bible. Later it was suggested that the leaf was "probably" created for the Winchester Bible.
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