Giovanni Pontano, De principe (On the Prince)
Principem decet esse pium, iustum, temperantem: haec est vera principis gloria.
Our renderingIt is fitting for a prince to be pious, just, and temperate: this is the true glory of a prince.
What it is
A speculum principis (mirror for princes) written by the Aragonese court humanist Giovanni Pontano in about 1468 as a direct letter of advice to the twenty-year-old Alfonso, Duke of Calabria (later Alfonso II of Naples), heir to King Ferrante. Pontano served as tutor to Alfonso and as secretary and chancellor of the Aragonese kingdom, and the De principe describes the virtues, piety, justice, and manner of life proper to a Christian ruler — making it a key formation text for the Aragonese heirs. Published in Naples by Mathias Moravus in 1490 with the De fortitudine, and reprinted in Venice (1501, 1512, 1518), it circulated widely as a practical guide for princely moral and religious formation.
Why it still matters
Pontano's insistence that piety, justice, and clemency are the foundations of princely legitimacy offers Christian leaders today a Renaissance-humanist perspective on public virtue grounded in theological ethics.
Kept alongside
Thomas à Kempis: De Imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ)
Perhaps the most widely read Christian devotional work after the Bible, the Imitation of Christ counsels interior piety, Eucharistic devotion, and detachment from worldly ambition — values promoted at both the Wittelsbach Counter-Reformation court and in Erasmian Lutheran circles in Saxony. The Jesuits recommended it throughout their German mission work, making it a standard text in the Bavarian court milieu under Albert V and William V; Luther himself was formed in the Devotio Moderna tradition from which it springs. No single Wettin or Wittelsbach ownership record has been located, and the dual-house listing reflects the near-universal presence of the text in every German Catholic and Erasmian Protestant court of the period rather than documented patronage.
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.