Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Deprecatoria ad Deum
Deprecatoria ad Deum elegiaco carmine
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 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Deprecatoria ad Deum?
A Latin elegiac prayer poem by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the philosopher of the Medici Platonic Academy, included in all editions of his Opera omnia. Pico settled in Florence under Lorenzo de' Medici's personal protection in 1488 and served as one of the tutors of Giovanni de' Medici, later Pope Leo X.
Sancte Deus, da quod iubes et iube quod vis.
Our renderingHoly God, give what you command, and command what you will.
What it is
A Latin elegiac prayer poem by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the philosopher of the Medici Platonic Academy, included in all editions of his Opera omnia. Pico settled in Florence under Lorenzo de' Medici's personal protection in 1488 and served as one of the tutors of Giovanni de' Medici, later Pope Leo X. The poem petitions God for mercy, acknowledges both original and personal sin, celebrates the redemptive love of Christ, and asks for a heart set on fire by divine love. It circulated within the Medici intellectual circle and was later translated into English verse by Sir Thomas More as part of his Life of Pico (c.1510), giving it a remarkable afterlife in northern humanist devotion.
Why it still matters
Sir Thomas More's English verse rendering of this prayer, printed in his Works and accessible at ExClassics.com, is one of the treasures of early English devotional literature and makes the prayer fully available for personal or communal use today.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Deprecatoria ad Deum companion
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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.