April 18, 2023 07:00
“Except for the tables of the Ten Commandments, everything else is stored here”, that is what they say the head of the library created by the millionaire John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) said when asked about the collection of books he managed for JP Morgan. This was not an exaggerated claim for the most powerful financier on Wall Street during the Gilded Age and the founder of JPMorgan & Co, one of the largest banking institutions in the capitalist world. A billionaire who added as many millions of dollars as art objects of all kinds… Also books. Lots of books, for which he built a library in his mansion.
The Pierpont Morgan Library occupies a Victorian building at 225 Madison Avenue, at the intersection with 36th Street, in Manhattan, near the Grand Central train station. The three-story room lined with walnut bookshelves is home to an exceptional collection of books, bibliophile gems including original corrections by Balzac himself, several of the earliest bibles to be printed, including three Gutenberg bibles, and other gems such as a 1623 edition of William Shakespeare’s play Comedies, historical dramas and tragediesor a 1780 edition of the The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote of La Mancha.
