Liber Regalis (Westminster Abbey MS 38)
Liber Regalis
Catalogue updated 2026-06-08
Ungo te in regem de oleo sanctificato, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
Our renderingI anoint you as king with sanctified oil, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
What it is
The Liber Regalis ('Royal Book') is an illuminated Latin coronation ordo held at Westminster Abbey (MS 38), compiled around 1382 and incorporating an earlier Plantagenet coronation ordo that may date to 1308. It contains the full liturgical rites for the coronation of a king, a king and queen together, and a queen alone, as well as prayers for the royal funeral. Each rite opens with a full-page illumination, and the order of service it prescribes was followed at every English coronation from Richard II through Elizabeth I. It stands at the intersection of royal sacrality and devotional prayer: the king's anointing and oath are understood as a solemn covenant with God and the people.
Why it still matters
The anointing prayers within the Liber Regalis, closely related to those of the Sarum pontifical, can be read as intercessory prayers for rulers and governments — a reminder that earthly authority is a sacred trust given under God. They are most naturally used in a church context of prayer for those in public office.
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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.
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.
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.