Prayer Book of Queen Beatrice

Prayer Book of Queen Beatrice

In the second half of the 15th century, a decidedly splendid little prayer book was made in Italy for Queen Beatrice of Aragon (1457–1508), which is not only an expression of her personal piety, but above all illustrates her activity as a patroness and lover of Italian Renaissance art and culture. Born in Capua, the daughter of the Italian King Ferdinand I of Naples (1424–1494) brought numerous humanist scholars and artists from Italy to Hungary after her marriage to the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490) and had the first Renaissance palace outside Italy built in Visegrád. Through her influence as a patroness and also her political ambitions, Hungary quickly developed into a new center of the Renaissance in Eastern Europe. So it is hardly surprising that her private prayer book is also a literally shining gem of elaborate Upper Italian art.

Marian prayers in golden garments

Throughout the codex, the Latin prayers and psalms were written in the finest chrysography, meaning in gold script, on the small-format parchment pages. Although the gold ink of the Gothic rotunda has been somewhat eroded at some points over the centuries, the ancient splendor of this calligraphic masterpiece still captivates the viewer on every page. Golden and colored initials with sweeping red and blue fleuronnée ornaments that evolve into elaborate graphic borders complement the gold-glowing texts on almost every page. Compiled in the 13th century by the Italian scholastic and Franciscan Bonaventure, these are addressed throughout to the Virgin Mary.

Italian Renaissance art in the smallest of spaces

Measuring only 10.5 × 7.6 cm, the prayer book is introduced by a magnificent incipit page framed entirely by a lush, wide border of filigree golden vines and colorful leaves and flowers. The bas-de-page features the patroness's coat of arms on a blue background in a medallion incorporated into the border, and which is repeated in the large historiated initial in the text. After two more decorated initials with gorgeous gold-embellished borders follow on fol. 98r and 109v, a large miniature of the resurrected Christ in a sumptuous frame concludes the penultimate part. With a dramatically outstretched, bleeding hand, the naturalistically depicted "Son of God" invites the user of the manuscript to meditate on his fate and resurrection.

A Hungarian gem

Written by a later 17th century hand, a note below the last prayer indicates that the royal prayer book was later owned by Nicholas Pálffy of Erdőd (1512–1568) and Peter Koháry (1564–1619), two Hungarian military officers and noblemen. Today, the Renaissance gem is kept in the library of the Benedictine Abbey of Melk under the shelfmark 1845.