Hours of Charles the Noble

rdf:langString Hours of Charles the Noble

rdf:langString The Hours of Charles the Noble (French: Heures de Charles le Noble) is a book of hours made in Paris in the early 15th century, and bought by Charles III of Navarre, called "the Noble", in 1404 or 1408. Since 1964 it has been in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was decorated by an international team of illuminators and illustrators of at least six people, headed by the so-called Master of the Brussels Initials. It was probably bought ready-made by Charles, who later had his coat of arms added to it in several places. The main artist of the book was the Master of the Brussels Initials; five of the large illuminations were in addition made by the so-called . The artistic programme of the book is a conscious fusion of Italian and French artistic influences, and it is important in that it helped pave the way for the so-called International Gothic of the early 15th century, and later highlights of medieval book illumination such as that by the Limbourg brothers. The book is profusely decorated, its marginal decoration alone was probably the richest produced in France for almost a century. Among its many smaller decorations are for example also depictions of 180 medieval musical instruments, probably more than in any other surviving book of hours.