Seven Penitential Psalms (with litanies)
Septem Psalmi Poenitentiales cum Litaniis
De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine; Domine, exaudi vocem meam.
Our renderingOut of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. (Psalm 130:1, one of the Seven Penitential Psalms)
What it is
The Seven Penitential Psalms (Pss. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143) followed by litanies of the saints formed a standard and obligatory devotional unit in every Book of Hours from the Este and Sforza courts, attested in the Sforza Hours (British Library Add. MS 34294), the Black Hours of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Gualenghi-d'Este Hours, and the Breviary of Ercole I d'Este. Used both for private penitential prayer throughout the liturgical year and as preparation for sacramental confession, they represent the most universal form of personal reckoning with sin in the medieval and Renaissance Church. Savonarola's Infelix ego — composed at the Este court's printing nexus in Ferrara — is a direct devotional outgrowth of this tradition, being itself a meditation on Psalm 51, the most central of the seven.
Why it still matters
The Penitential Psalms remain among the most powerful and universal prayers in the Christian tradition; they are freely accessible in any Bible and are particularly valuable for Lent, Advent, and pre-confession preparation.
Kept alongside
Officium Parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis (Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Officium Parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis
The devotional core shared by virtually every Book of Hours owned or commissioned by the Este and Sforza courts — including the Sforza Hours, the Gualenghi-d'Este Hours, the Offiziolo Alfonsino, and the Hours of Anna Sforza — is the Officium Parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This eight-hour daily cycle of psalms, hymns, antiphons, and versicles drawn from the Roman Breviary structured the devotional day of lay aristocrats across 15th- and 16th-century Italy, making it the single most important vehicle of formal prayer among the nobility. Its texts are essentially unchanged since the 11th century, and every Book of Hours from both courts contains it as the central and longest section.
Breviary of Ercole I d'Este
Breviarium secundum consuetudinem Romanae Curiae (Breviary of Ercole I d'Este)
One of the grandest personal breviaries ever produced for an Italian Renaissance ruler, this manuscript was commissioned by and presented to Duke Ercole I d'Este of Ferrara in 1504. Following the Roman rite in full, it contains the complete Breviarium Romanum: Calendar, Temporale, Psalter, Sanctorale, Common of Saints, and Auxiliary Texts, decorated with 45 full-page and 11 half-page miniatures and thousands of ornamental initials representing the apex of Ferrarese court illumination. Ercole was known for his intense personal piety and his patronage of Savonarola, and this breviary was the physical instrument of his daily prayer through the final years of his reign. It is now held at the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria in Modena (MS Lat. 324).
Gualenghi-d'Este Hours
Created around 1469 for the marriage of Ferrarese diplomat Andrea Gualengo to Orsina d'Este, a niece of the ruling marquis, this book of hours is among the most important Italian manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum (Ms. Ludwig IX 13). Painted chiefly by Taddeo Crivelli with contributions from Guglielmo Giraldi, both leading court illuminators of Ferrara, it contains the Hours of the Virgin, Penitential Psalms, Hours of the Holy Cross, Office of the Dead, and suffrages — short votive prayers to individual saints. The full-page miniatures blend Ferrarese Renaissance naturalism with classical architectural framing, making this one of the finest secular-devotional commissions of the Quattrocento. Its creation at the intersection of diplomacy and dynastic alliance gives it an unusual social depth for a personal prayer book.