Blanche of Castile Instructing King Louis IX of France; Author Dictating to a Scribe

This miniature is the last leaf of a gathering of eight leaves which once formed the last part of a magnificent three-volume Moralized Bible that King Louis IX (25 April 1214 - 25 August 1270) gave to Toledo Cathedral. The volumes contained over 5,000 pictures, from Genesis to the Apocalypse. It is not clear, however, that the Morgan gathering was part of the gift. The rest of the manuscript is still in the cathedral. The miniature is, in effect, a pictorial colophon indicating that Blanche of Castile commissioned the Moralized Bible for the instruction of her son, who ascended the throne of France on 8 November 1226, aged twelve. She remained in regret until 1234.