The person for whom this marvellous Book of Hours was made is still unknown. Running along the bottom of the pages in the calendar is a series of images that have always been of great interest. They depict sports activities and other pastimes typical of the period when the manuscript was made. One of the games portrayed is golf, the reason why this book is also known as the “Golf Book”. In addition to these small, marginal scenes, the pages of the calendar are characterized by a series of miniatures depicting daily work and leisure activities typical of the 16th century.

The son of the artist Alexander Bening, Simon Bening was born in 1483 or 84 in Ghent. Around the year 1500 he began working in Bruges and Ghent, before finally settling in Bruges in about 1519. His workshop produced countless books of hours, all truly outstanding, for people of high rank in across Europe. He was undoubtedly the best known miniaturist of his time. His oeuvre includes such noteworthy items as the Prayer Book of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum) and the Da Costa Hours (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library). Bening died in 1561 at the age of 78.

Commentary volume