Apocalypse of Margaret of York
L'Apocalypse de Marguerite d'York
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
Morgan Library MS M.484 is an illuminated Apocalypse made for Margaret of York in Ghent c. 1475, written by the court scribe David Aubert and decorated with 79 tinted grisaille miniatures attributable to the circle of the Master of Mary of Burgundy. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1911, it is documented through unbroken provenance to Margaret's personal library, where it joined her Tondal and other commissioned devotional manuscripts. The work reflects the Burgundian court's eschatological piety and crusading identity, in which the imagery of Revelation was both a private devotional resource and a political-theological statement about the end of history. As a single luxury commission, the manuscript's reach was strictly personal, though the text of Revelation itself was of course universally known.
Why it still matters
Prayerful, image-accompanied reading of Revelation — moving slowly through each vision with contemplative attention, as Margaret practised — is a rich form of meditative devotion for any Christian seeking to anchor present suffering and hope in eschatological promises.
Kept alongside
The Imitation of Christ
De Imitatione Christi
Written by Thomas à Kempis in the Netherlands in the circle of the Brethren of the Common Life — the same Devotio Moderna movement that directly shaped Margaret of York's documented devotional practice and the piety of Isabella of Portugal at the Burgundian court — the Imitation became the most copied vernacular religious text in 15th-century Europe, circulating in thousands of manuscripts and hundreds of early printed editions. Its four books move from the vanity of worldly learning through conformity to Christ, inward consolation, and finally the sacrament of the Eucharist, forming a complete program of interior conversion. No specific ducal inventory copy has been identified linking this text to Valois-Burgundy by name, but its presence in court circles of this era and region is established through movement history rather than document. It remains the second most widely read Christian book after the Bible.
Prayer Book of Charles the Bold
Livre de prières de Charles le Téméraire
Court payment records of January and July 1469 document payments to scribe Nicolas Spierinc and illuminator Lieven van Lathem respectively for what is now J. Paul Getty Museum Ms. 37 — Charles the Bold's personal pocket prayer book. The small volume grew across two illumination campaigns to contain 47 miniatures and decorated borders on every page, the second campaign (c. 1480–1490) added by a French illuminator after Charles's death in 1477. Its contents are Christocentric and Marian: penitential collects, prayers before and after Communion, litanies, and suffrages to patron saints, reflecting the Burgundian court's ideal of intense private piety fused with luxury craftsmanship. As an intimate personal companion carried by a ruling duke, it represents the highest expression of late-medieval lay devotion.
Book Altar of Philip the Good
Livre-autel de Philippe le Bon
A singular object in the history of Burgundian devotion, this manuscript combines a portable painted diptych — showing the Trinity and the Coronation of the Virgin — with Latin and French prayers that Philip the Good used for daily quiet meditation until his death in 1467. Philip personalised it over decades by attaching 22 pilgrim badges whose lead offsets survive pressed into the pages, making it a layered record of his actual pilgrimage piety. Around 1500 it was enlarged with 39 additional miniatures by the Master of the Prayer Books of c. 1500, probably for a later Burgundian owner. The image-and-prayer format embodies the Devotio Moderna ideal that seeing and praying should be simultaneous acts.