The Luttrell Psalter is an illuminated manuscript

Illuminated manuscript

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...

 written and illustrated circa 1320 – 1340 by anonymous scribes and artists. It was commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell

Geoffrey Luttrell

Sir Geoffrey Luttrell III was a great great grandson of Sir Geoffrey de Luterel. His family seat was Irnham Hall at Irnham in Lincolnshire and he was referred to as the 2nd Lord of Irnham....

 (1276-1345), a wealthy English landowner who lived at Irnham

Irnham

Irnham is a village in Lincolnshire in South Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England. It is about ten miles south east of Grantham, To the north is Osgodby, to the south Swinstead, and to the west Corby Glen. The village is on a high limestone ridge that forms the southern part of the Lincolnshire...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

.

Along with the psalms

Psalms

The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

 (beginning on 13 recto), the Luttrell Psalter

Psalter

A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...

 contains a calendar (1 r), canticle

Canticle

A canticle is a hymn taken from the Bible. The term is often expanded to include ancient non-biblical hymns such as the Te Deum and certain psalms used liturgically.-Roman Catholic Church:From the Old Testament, the Roman Breviary takes seven canticles for use at Lauds, as follows:*...

s (259 verso), the Mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

 (283 v) and an antiphon

Antiphon

An antiphon in Christian music and ritual, is a "responsory" by a choir or congregation, usually in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or other text in a religious service or musical work....

 for the dead (295 r). The pages vary in their degree of illumination but many are richly covered with both decorated text and marginal pictures of saints and Bible stories, of rural life, farming, cooking, doctoring, spouses squabbling, musicians playing, etc. It is considered by some to be one of the richest sources for visual depictions of everyday rural life in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 of the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

.

The illustrations also include very many strange combinations of parts of animal and human figures. Most remain obscure but some can be related to the text beside which they are painted and this helps a little towards giving an insight into the symbolism of the similarly strange creatures found carved into the stonework of some church buildings of the book's period.

The Psalter was acquired by the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 in 1929 for £31,500 from Mary Angela Noyes, wife of the poet Alfred Noyes

Alfred Noyes

Alfred Noyes was an English poet, best known for his ballads, "The Highwayman" and "The Barrel-Organ".-Early years:...

.

The British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

 published a facsimile of the Psalter in 2006.

The first owner

In medieval times, the creation of magnificent illuminated manuscripts was both a demonstration of piety and a symbol of the great wealth and power of the kings or lords who commissioned them. Sir Geoffrey Luttrell was a knight and baron whose wealth, dynastic alliances and military record placed him firmly among the English elite. His family Psalter appears to have taken over ten years to complete.

Sir Geoffrey Luttrell's ancestor Geoffrey de Luterel

Geoffrey de Luterel

Sir Geoffrey de Luterel I , was a courtier and confidante of King John, whom he served as a minister.He married Frethesant Paynel on February 26 1190 and had 3 children together, Margeret, Andrew & Robert...

 had been a close associate of King John

John of England

John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

, and the family had negotiated successfully the troubled reign of Edward II

Edward II of England

Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...

 and cemented lands and alliances under Edward III

Edward III of England

Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...

. By the time of his death, Sir Geoffrey owned estates in Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, Leicestershire

Leicestershire

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 and Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

, and the emphasis of the manuscript on rural scenes reflects this great land-holding. Indeed, the illustrations may even commemorate actual events, like Sir Geoffrey's building of a watermill

Watermill

A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...

 at Bridgeford.
Many have claimed that the Luttrell Psalter shows how medieval people used to work, what tools they used, and what they used to wear, although Michael Camille rejects such ideas, proposing instead that the manuscript created reality, rather than mirroring it.

External links

• Whole manuscript on Commons
• The Luttrell Psalter
• Luttrell Psalter Film