Book of Hours of Frederick of Aragon, King of Naples (BnF, Latin 10532)
De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine: Domine, exaudi vocem meam.
Our renderingOut of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.
What it is
A luxury devotional manuscript made for Frederick of Aragon, the last Aragonese King of Naples (r. 1496–1501), produced in a remarkable collaboration between French and Italian illuminators during his 'gilded exile' in France after the French conquest of Naples in 1501. The text was written in humanist script by an Italian scribe before the exile, and the illumination completed in France, bringing the Neapolitan illuminator Ioan Todeschino and the great French master Jean Bourdichon together. The sixty-two full-page miniatures by Bourdichon are considered among his finest work. The volume follows Dominican use, containing Hours of the Virgin, Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Spirit, Penitential Psalms, Office of the Dead, and suffrages, and is now at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Latin 10532).
Why it still matters
Psalm 130 (De profundis), one of the seven Penitential Psalms contained in this hours, is still prayed by Catholics for the dead and as a penitential prayer; it speaks directly to the exile and longing expressed in Frederick's own life.
Kept alongside
Psalter and Prayerbook of Ferdinand I of Aragon, King of Naples (Morgan Library, MS M.541)
An abbreviated Psalter and prayerbook (Psalterium Sancti Hieronymi) made in Naples for Ferdinand I of Aragon, King of Naples (Ferrante, r. 1458–1494), with the king's arms and emblems (including his device probanda — 'to be proved' — and the mountain of diamonds in ermine) prominently displayed on two border illuminations. Scribed and illuminated by the Neapolitan court illuminator Gioacchino di Giovanni, this is a personal devotional text clearly intended for the king's private prayer rather than chapel performance. The Psalter of St Jerome is a shortened, contemplative version of the Psalms favoured for lay devotion, and its presence in the royal collection demonstrates the Aragonese court's cultivation of private scriptural prayer.
Book of Hours of Alfonso of Aragon (Alfonso of Aragon Hours, V&A)
A richly decorated Book of Hours for the Use of Rome produced in Naples around 1470, bearing the arms of Alfonso of Aragon (either Alfonso II of Naples or a member of the Aragonese dynasty), now at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The binding — purple velvet with silver-gilt bosses inlaid with enamelled Aragonese arms and four velvet clasps — is original and attests to the manuscript's royal ownership and high ceremonial status. Thirteen large Neapolitan-style miniatures with white interlace borders, putti, parrots, and floral scrolls, plus twenty-one historiated initials, frame the traditional Hours of the Virgin and Office of the Dead in the Neapolitan court illumination style of the period.
Psalter and Book of Hours of Alfonso the Magnanimous and Cardinal Joan de Casanova
A sumptuous Psalter-Hours created in Valencia for Alfonso V the Magnanimous between 1436 and 1443, illuminated by Lleonard Crespí in the International Gothic style and sent to the king at Naples after its completion. The manuscript was commissioned by one of Alfonso's confessors, Cardinal Joan de Casanova, serving simultaneously as a dynastic propaganda instrument and a genuine personal devotional book — the king used it to project his royal authority and piety. It is one of the most important illuminated books produced at the Valencian court and is now preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli as one of the few Aragonese manuscripts remaining in Naples after the dispersion of the royal library.