[2] The Bible is on permanent display in Winchester Cathedral's Kings & Scribes exhibition.

During the Romanesque period, the focus of major illumination in Western Europe moved from the Gospel Book to the Psalter and the Bible.

The Bible consists of the entire Vulgate, comprising both Old and New Testaments, two versions of the Psalms, and the Apocrypha, and is written in the Latin of St Jerome.

Each bi-folium would have been pricked for ruling to ensure the pages and lines of text were arranged properly.

Unlike other manuscripts of this size, the Winchester Bible was written by the hand of one scribe with a goose feather quill.

It is thought that the scribe would have been an accomplished member of the Winchester's Priory of St Swithun, and the work has been estimated to have taken at least four years to complete.

[3] After the text was written it was reviewed by a monk, and then colour was added to important words and letters.

The Apocrypha Drawings Master was likely trained in France or Normandy since his style of energetic and mannered poses more closely resembles French art at the time, more so than English.

The dramatic poses and leaping movements are hallmarks of the Byzantine style that was influential in Winchester, starting around 1130.

The most expensive pigment to produce was not the silver or gold gilding, but the bright blue ultramarine which could only be sourced from lapis lazuli from Afghanistan.

This leaf shows scenes from the lives of Samuel on the recto and of King David on the verso.

The Morgan Leaf is characterized by the bold emotion shown in the figures, with less attention paid to the details.

The leaf was most likely removed during the rebinding process in 1820, and was sold to John Pierpont Morgan in 1912 for 30,000 francs.

The first person to recognise the connection between the Morgan Leaf and the Winchester Bible was the British Museum's Keeper of Manuscripts, Eric Millar, in 1926.

[4] This was proven by comparison of the underdrawings of the Morgan Leaf to the incomplete illuminations of the Winchester Bible.