Trilingual Psalter of Federico da Montefeltro (Psalterium trilingue, Urb. lat.)
Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum.
Our renderingBlessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.
What it is
A parallel-text Psalter in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, commissioned by Federico da Montefeltro after he acquired a sizeable collection of Hebrew manuscripts for the Urbino library. The illuminated initial letters reflect the three textual traditions — Western, Byzantine, and Jewish artistic styles respectively — making it a unique monument of Renaissance humanist and devotional scholarship. Documented in the Vatican Library's Humanist Prince thematic exhibition, the Psalter embodied Federico's programme of learning the languages of Scripture as an act of princely piety and intellectual formation, and almost certainly was used in the tutoring of his heir Guidobaldo.
Why it still matters
Psalm 1 — the probable opening of the Psalter — remains one of the most accessible entry-points for praying the Psalms today; praying through all 150 Psalms in a monthly cycle, as many religious orders still do, echoes Federico's devotional practice.
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.
Bible of Federico da Montefeltro (Bibbia Urbinate, Urb. lat. 1–2)
The monumental illuminated Vulgate Bible commissioned by Federico III da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, from a Florentine workshop under Vespasiano da Bisticci between 1476 and 1478. Comprising two volumes (Urb. lat. 1–2, now Vatican Apostolic Library), it measured 596 × 442 mm and was bound in gold brocade with silver locks — the preeminent manuscript in Federico's library of some 900 codices. Federico's biographer Vespasiano da Bisticci testified that the duke was 'very religious and observant of divine precepts,' rose early for prayer, and considered the Bible the 'chief of all writings.' The manuscript was produced not merely as a scholarly or status object but as the spiritual foundation of the humanist prince's library and personal devotion.
Book of Hours of Eleonora Ippolita Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino (Bodleian MS Douce 29)
A Book of Hours for the Use of Rome made for Eleonora Ippolita Gonzaga (1493–1550), eldest daughter of Isabella d'Este and Francesco II Gonzaga, who married Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (nephew of Pope Julius II and ward of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro). The manuscript, written in the elegant script of the celebrated calligrapher Ludovico degli Arrighi, links the Gonzaga and the della Rovere–Montefeltro lines and represents private ducal devotion at Urbino in the generation after Castiglione's court. Now in the Bodleian Library as MS Douce 29, it demonstrates the continuing tradition of aristocratic women commissioning personal books of hours for private prayer.