Luttrell Psalter
The Luttrell Psalter is an illustrated manuscript created between 1325 and 1335 by unknown scribes and illustrators. It was commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell († 1345), a wealthy English landowner from Irnham , Lincolnshire . The Psalter is in the holdings of the British Library in London with the signature Add. MS 42130.
In addition to the psalms beginning on 13r, the book contains a canticum on 1r, 259v, a funeral mass on 283v and an antiphon for the dead (295r). The individual pages vary in the quality of the illustrations, but most are richly illustrated and decorated. The images show saints, Bible scenes and everyday scenes such as rural life, agriculture, kitchen scenes, health care, squabbles, musicians playing, etc. The psalter is one of the most extensive sources of images of everyday rural life in medieval England.
Some illustrations show unusual chimeras , characters with human and animal attributes. The meaning of many of these images remains obscure, but some of these chimeras are directly related to the text opposite. They help to develop the symbolism of stone sculptures on church buildings from the time the book was written.
The British Library published a facsimile of the Luttrell Psalter in 2006 .
The client
The acquisition of lavishly illustrated manuscripts was for medieval kings and nobles both an expression of their own piety and a demonstration of their own prosperity and power. Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (1276-1345) was a knight and baron. His family ties and military successes had earned him the highest reputation. The Psalter was commissioned by his family in 1332 and took more than 10 years to complete.
literature
- The Luttrell Psalter, a Facsimile . Michelle P. Browne, ed. The British Library, London 2006. ISBN 978-0-7123-4934-5 .
- Michael Camille: Mirror in Parchment . Reaction Books, London 1998. ISBN 1-86189-023-0 .
- Rosina Buckland: Sounds of the Psalter: Orality and Musical Symbolism in the Luttrell Psalter . In: Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography . 28, No. 1-2, 2003, ISSN 1522-7464 , pp. 71-97.
