Hieronymus Bosch died in 's-Hertogenbosch in the summer of 1516, at about 65. No document gives the day or the cause. The one firm date is 9 August 1516, when a funeral mass was sung for him in Saint John's church.
He had been a sworn member of the town's Brotherhood of Our Lady for decades, and it was the Brotherhood's account book, not a doctor or a notary, that took note of his passing.
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Most summaries give 9 August 1516 as the day Bosch died. It is the day of his funeral mass. The Prado Museum in Madrid says so in plain words: "there is no record of the date of his death."
The cause is just as thin. Many accounts say an epidemic killed him. The Prado is more careful: that summer 's-Hertogenbosch had an epidemic with cholera-like symptoms, and Bosch "may have been among the victims." Other biographers write pleurisy, without naming a source. No account of his symptoms survives.
I don't think either guess deserves to be repeated as settled. What the town kept was a list of the dead, and a list says who, never why.
What did the Brotherhood write about Bosch?
It entered him on a list of the dead. The Brotherhood of Our Lady was the most respected religious society in the town. Its sworn brothers were chosen citizens, it staged processions and plays in honor of the Virgin, and it prayed in its own chapel inside Saint John's.
Bosch had belonged since the late 1480s. His family name was van Aken, and "Bosch" came from his hometown, the Duke's Forest, as 's-Hertogenbosch is also known.
For 1516 the list of deceased members carries the line "Jheronimus aquen als Bosch insignis pictor," Hieronymus van Aken, called Bosch, distinguished painter. That is how the 1967 catalogue of the Noordbrabants Museum, edited by K.G. Boon, prints it. The Prado gives the same entry in plainer terms: "Jeronimus van Aken painter, sworn brother."
The Brotherhood organized the requiem mass and paid for it, as it did for every sworn member. Historians who have read the preserved account book see in it a final tribute to an important and highly revered man.
The man who is now one of the best-known painters in the world is, in his own town's records, one line on a list. The line gives the year of his death, but not the day.
What You'll Discover
How far the date can be trusted.
Which sickness gets the blame.
What his paintings say about his last years.
Where his body went.