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Original file
About This Work
This manuscript page features 15th-century Middle Dutch script recorded in the administrative logs of a religious confraternity. The text documents a traditional 'swan banquet' and explicitly names the artist as 'Jheronimus van Aken, schilder,' noting his involvement in the ceremony. The document is written in a standard late medieval secretarial hand on paper.
This is a crucial primary source for the biography of Hieronymus Bosch, proving his high social standing and active participation in the orthodox religious life of 's-Hertogenbosch. It anchors his seemingly eccentric or 'visionary' art within the context of the Devotio Moderna and late medieval civic piety.
Inscriptions(Dutch)
Item ter derder vergaderinge doemen den swaen att tot behoeve vanden punten Daer Jhero- nimus van aken schilder dat laken afgetoghen In den swaen ghenomen ende gheschonckt vanden Rentmeester van vlieghen ontfanghen goet daer toe noch ghevorghet vijff quinten van wijn een ander swaen van arnt smit ende de knape die den swaen draeght sijn dienstgelt ys se se tsamen xij st
Translation