The Morgan Library An American Masterpiece

Description

The Morgan Library, once the private domain of the financier-collectorPierpont Pierpont Morgans study Morgan (1837-1913), is now a public research library,museum, architectural landmark, and historic site.The collections are vast and eclectic, representing the combined and evolving tastesof Pierpont Morgan, his son, J. P. Morgan, Jr., four Library directors,and a succession of other curators and collectors down to the present day.Chronologically, the collections extend from the earliest recorded civilizationsof ancient Mesopotamia to the modern era. They are organized into the following categories:paintings and art objects, ancient Near Eastern seals and tablets, drawings and prints,medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, literary and historical manuscripts,music manuscripts and books, and bindings and printed books, including childrens books.Accordingly, we have followed the same structure in the organization of the present volume.Cutting across these categories, however, is an almost limitless array of different areasof inquiry and study—art, literature, science, mathematics, history, philosophy, religion,law, education, theater, opera, linguistics, music, astrology, paleography, navigation,medicine, witchcraft, and gardening. And this list is far from complete.