Margaret of Cleves (1375–1412) – the second wife of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria and Count of Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut – was likely the first owner of this book, which she donated to the Convent of Schönensteinbach (Alsace), as indicated in an inscription on the last folio of the manuscript.

This Book of Hours, containing prayers for private worship, includes 11 full-page miniatures. Following the calendar, they punctuate the Hours of the Virgin and then introduce the Short Hours of the Holy Spirit, the Seven Penitential Psalms, the Litany of Saints, and finally the Office of the Dead.

The scenes demonstrate the innovative character of the artist, known as the ‘Master of Margaret of Cleves’, and they would influence later Dutch illumination. The first miniature offers a new paradigm for the portrayal of patrons in their own books of hours: the contact between the profane space, where the praying woman who is probably Margaret of Cleves appears, and the sacred space, containing the Virgin and Child. These two realms interact and intersect through the exchanged glances of the figures, the Virgin’s robe overlapping the frame of the divine world, and Margaret’s prie-dieu entirety projected into the space occupied by the Virgin.