Hastings Hours
The Hastings Hours
Produced in Bruges/Ghent c. 1475–1483 and now held at the British Library (Add MS 54782), this manuscript is described as one of the outstanding achievements of Renaissance Flemish illumination. Research has established that William Lord Hastings' coat of arms was painted over an earlier coat of arms, suggesting the manuscript may have originally been commissioned for Edward IV or Edward V as Prince of Wales before passing to Hastings, Edward IV's chamberlain. The attribution to Lieven van Lathem sometimes found in older literature is not supported by current scholarly consensus; the miniatures are more reliably attributed to the Master of the First Prayer Book of Maximilian or possibly Alexander Bening. The manuscript represents the apex of private devotional culture among the senior English court nobility in the late fifteenth century.