Deprecatoria ad Deum / Twelve Rules of a Christian Life
Catalogue updated 2026-06-08
Full Sub Rosa translationRead the full translationOpen reader →Open the chapter reader with the full English translation, source text, notes, and scripture echoes.What is Deprecatoria ad Deum / Twelve Rules of a Christian Life?
Pico della Mirandola — who settled in Florence in November 1484 under the protection of Lorenzo de' Medici — composed a Latin elegiac prayer to God (Deprecatoria ad Deum) and a set of Twelve Rules of a Christian Life, both included in his Opera omnia and translated into English by Thomas More (printed by Wynkyn de Worde c.
Da mihi, Domine, quod ignoro, quod scio ut custodiam, quod nescio ut discam.
Our renderingGive me, Lord, to know what I do not know, to keep what I do know, and to learn what I have not yet learned.
What it is
Pico della Mirandola — who settled in Florence in November 1484 under the protection of Lorenzo de' Medici — composed a Latin elegiac prayer to God (Deprecatoria ad Deum) and a set of Twelve Rules of a Christian Life, both included in his Opera omnia and translated into English by Thomas More (printed by Wynkyn de Worde c. 1510), who praised the work as an expression of genuine simple Christian godliness. The Heptaplus (1489) bears a documented dedication to Lorenzo; the Deprecatoria circulated within the same Medici-hosted intellectual circle, though it does not carry a formal Medici dedication. These devotional works reveal the inner piety coexisting with Pico's speculative philosophy and gained wider circulation through More's English translation.
Why it still matters
The Twelve Rules and the Deprecatoria are completely accessible as concise practical and poetic spiritual guides; Thomas More's translations are freely available online and the texts work well as a brief daily examination of conscience or morning prayer.
Deprecatoria ad Deum / Twelve Rules of a Christian Life companion
Drill one rule or weapon each morning
Chosen Portion serves Pico's rules — and the whole royal devotional archive — as free daily readings.
Pico meant these rules to be reviewed constantly, not read once, and Chosen Portion turns them into a rotating daily drill on your phone.
- All 24 rules and weapons as individual daily portions, each with its Scripture references
- A 2-minute morning drill: today's rule, its meaning, and a short prayer
- After Pico's 24 days, continue with à Kempis, Anselm, and 70+ more historic works
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.
Prison Meditations on Psalms 51 and 31
Savonarola composed these meditations on Psalm 51 (Miserere, known as 'Infelix ego') and Psalm 31 (In te, Domine, speravi) in Latin while imprisoned in the Palazzo della Signoria in 1498 awaiting trial and execution, his right hand temporarily spared from further torture so he could sign his confession. Approximately 15 Italian editions appeared by 1500, making them among the most rapidly disseminated devotional texts of the early print era and ensuring pan-European reach within a decade. Savonarola had preached at San Marco — the monastery Cosimo de' Medici built and patronized — from 1482 and was the friar summoned to Lorenzo de' Medici's deathbed in 1492, giving these works an indirect but real connection to the Medici devotional world. The Miserere meditation (Infelix ego) became one of the most reprinted Latin spiritual texts of the sixteenth century.
Infelix ego (Meditation on Psalm 51 / Miserere)
Infelix ego, omnium auxilio destitutus
A profound Latin meditation on Psalm 51 (Miserere) composed in his Florentine prison cell by the Dominican friar Savonarola shortly before his execution on 23 May 1498. Despite being the Medici's principal political opponent, his text circulated in fifteen Italian editions by 1500 in the very city where Giovanni de' Medici (future Leo X) and Giulio de' Medici (future Clement VII) were formed; Martin Luther endorsed it in 1523. Josquin des Prez, Cipriano de Rore, and William Byrd set versions to polyphony, securing its place across a century of European devotional music. Its connection to Medici piety is environmental rather than by commission or documented use.