Older Prayer Book (Älteres Gebetbuch) of Charles V
O bone Iesu, o dulcissime Iesu, o Iesu fili Mariae Virginis, plenus misericordia et pietate.
Our renderingO good Jesus, O most sweet Jesus, O Jesus son of the Virgin Mary, full of mercy and piety.
What it is
A small Flemish Book of Hours (Cod. Vindob. 1859, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna) created in Ghent or Bruges between 1516 and 1519 for the young King Charles I of Spain, later Emperor Charles V. Its 512 vellum pages contain the Liturgy of the Hours alongside 76 miniatures in the Ghent-Bruges school style, emphasising self-sacrifice, humility, and Eucharistic devotion. Visible signs of heavy personal use—worn pages and smudged margins—testify to Charles's habitual recitation throughout his reign. The Devotio Moderna spirituality of his tutor Adrian of Utrecht, later Pope Adrian VI, shaped the book's devotional tenor.
Why it still matters
The very same Liturgy of the Hours that Charles prayed daily is recited by millions of Catholics worldwide today; picking up any edition of the breviary connects a modern reader to exactly this tradition of royal and monastic prayer.
Kept alongside
Officium Defunctorum (Office of the Dead) for Empress Maria
The final and most celebrated composition of Tomás Luis de Victoria, composed for the funeral obsequies of Dowager Empress Maria of Austria—daughter of Charles V, sister of Philip II—performed on 22–23 April 1603 at the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, where Victoria served as organist and chaplain under her personal patronage from the late 1580s. It sets the complete Office of the Dead for six-voice SSATTB polyphonic chorus, and was dedicated to her daughter Archduchess Margaret, a nun in the same convent. The work was performed in the direct presence of the Habsburg court and royal family as an act of liturgical intercession for the dead empress. It is now regarded as the supreme example of Renaissance polyphonic Requiem composition.
Book of Hours of Philip II (Capitulario de Felipe II)
Horas de Felipe II (Capitulario de Felipe II)
This richly illuminated personal Book of Hours was commissioned by Philip II of Spain and executed in the scriptorium of the Real Monasterio de El Escorial by three Hieronymite monks, with 45 miniatures across 320 parchment pages in a style indebted to Italian Mannerist miniaturist Giulio Clovio. It contains the Liturgy of the Hours structured for private daily prayer, together with antiphons and liturgical texts, and was Philip II's personal devotional instrument for the famously austere prayer life he maintained at El Escorial. The manuscript, regarded as the finest work produced in the Escorial scriptorium, survives at the Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial (MS Vitrina 2). It is among the best-documented examples of a reigning monarch's personal prayer book from the sixteenth century.
Hours of Joanna I of Castile and Philip the Fair
An opulent Flemish Book of Hours (British Library, Add MS 18852) created ca. 1496–1506 for Joanna I of Castile and her husband Philip the Fair, whose heraldry appears throughout its 844 illuminations and 75 full-page miniatures. Documented in a 1545 inventory of Joanna's possessions, the manuscript integrates the standard liturgical Hours with the Speculum conscientiae—a catechetical text covering the Ten Commandments, Seven Deadly Sins, Cardinal Virtues, Sacraments, and theological virtues. This dual function as both prayer book and doctrinal manual made it a distinctive instrument of formation for the foundational generation of Spanish Habsburg rulers.