Speculum Humanae Salvationis (Mirror of Human Salvation) — Burgundian French translation by Jean Miélot
Le Miroer de l'Humaine Salvation
Omnes res creatas Deus condidit propter hominem, hominem vero propter seipsum.
Our renderingGod created all things for the sake of humanity, but humanity for his own sake.
What it is
Philip the Good personally commissioned Jean Miélot in 1448 to translate the Speculum Humanae Salvationis from Latin into French, creating the court's primary typological devotional text; the original Latin Speculum was composed anonymously between 1309 and 1324, most likely by a Dominican friar. The Speculum pairs scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin with three Old Testament prefigurations each, forming a visually and textually rich meditation on salvation history across both Testaments. Its original Latin text circulated in hundreds of manuscripts across Europe, making it one of the most widely distributed illustrated devotional works of the later Middle Ages. Philip the Good's French commission placed this pan-European text within the specific pedagogical and spiritual agenda of the Burgundian court.
Why it still matters
The Speculum's method of reading every Old Testament episode as a prefiguration of Christ remains one of the richest approaches to devotional Bible study today; a reader can open any passage of the Hebrew Scriptures and ask 'where is Christ here?' using this text as a guide.
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.
Prayer Book of Charles the Bold
Livre de prières de Charles le Téméraire
Court payment records of January and July 1469 document payments to scribe Nicolas Spierinc and illuminator Lieven van Lathem respectively for what is now J. Paul Getty Museum Ms. 37 — Charles the Bold's personal pocket prayer book. The small volume grew across two illumination campaigns to contain 47 miniatures and decorated borders on every page, the second campaign (c. 1480–1490) added by a French illuminator after Charles's death in 1477. Its contents are Christocentric and Marian: penitential collects, prayers before and after Communion, litanies, and suffrages to patron saints, reflecting the Burgundian court's ideal of intense private piety fused with luxury craftsmanship. As an intimate personal companion carried by a ruling duke, it represents the highest expression of late-medieval lay devotion.
Book Altar of Philip the Good
Livre-autel de Philippe le Bon
A singular object in the history of Burgundian devotion, this manuscript combines a portable painted diptych — showing the Trinity and the Coronation of the Virgin — with Latin and French prayers that Philip the Good used for daily quiet meditation until his death in 1467. Philip personalised it over decades by attaching 22 pilgrim badges whose lead offsets survive pressed into the pages, making it a layered record of his actual pilgrimage piety. Around 1500 it was enlarged with 39 additional miniatures by the Master of the Prayer Books of c. 1500, probably for a later Burgundian owner. The image-and-prayer format embodies the Devotio Moderna ideal that seeing and praying should be simultaneous acts.