What is the Luttrell Psalter?

The Luttrell Psalter is a decorated (illuminated) manuscript from the Middle Ages. It was written and illuminated from about 1325 for a land-owner and Knight, Sir Geoffrey Luttrell of Irnham in Lincolnshire (England).

It is mainly a book of psalms and and prayers Latin. It is made up of 309 pages of strong, well-prepared vellum, each measuring about 360 x 245 mm. It has been recovered in modern dark-brown Moroccan leather.

The writing is large and can be read at a distance. It is in the same handwriting  throughout. The text is illustrated with illuminated initial letters.

Click on the picture to see an illuminated first (initial) letter

There are also lots of other decorations which cover almost every aspect of medieval life.  For example, the two pictures below show the importance of farming to people in medieval Europe.

Click on the right to see a picture of ploughing

Click on the left to see a picture of the harvest

Who made it and how?

The Luttrell Psalter was made before paper was introduced in Europe. Instead it was made on vellum: parchment made from stretched sheepskin. Click on the images below to see a close up of a calligrapher using a quill and books made from vellum.

It was probably created over a period of several years, by a scribe (possibly several) and a team of illustrators. These people would probably have been professional artists rather than (as is commonly believed) monks.

The scribe would have used a quill and black ink. By looking carefully at the pages we can see that the evenness of the calligraphy was achieved by working on a page ruled with finely drawn lines. 

Click on the image to see an example of Luttrell Psalter calligraphy

The illustrations seem to be the work of a number of different painters: this is evident from the style of workmanship. One of the artists — sometimes known as the ‘Luttrell Master’ — is clearly a better artist than the others. He was responsible for many of the more important images.

What is special about the Luttrell Psalter?

The Luttrell Psalter is special because so few images of medieval rural Europe survive to this day. Fragments of wall paintings, tapestries and carvings do remain, but such collections of images are rarely as complete as those in illuminated manuscripts. The Luttrell Psalter is in particularly good condition and has very high quality illustrations, covering a wide range of subjects: scenes from the Bible, scenes from the lives of the saints, scenes of daily life on Sir Geoffrey’s Estates — and the most freakish monsters. There are many such monsters or 'babewyns' in the Luttrell Psalter. More often than not they are hybrid in form, with the heads of humans grafted to the limbs and bodies of animals, birds and fish. We can't be absolutely certain why they are there, though it has been suggested that sometimes they might represent the demons of hell.

Click here to see a typical Luttrell Psalter 'babewyn'.

The Psalter has lots of attractive illustrations in the margins showing scenes of rural life.

Click to see a really good example of a 'marginal' illustration.

The ‘Luttrell Master’ has created beautiful images with lots of colour. The drawings are attractive and sometimes funny. Historians have used them to illustrate their texts. Having been copied and reproduced so often, these images have influenced how people 'see' medieval England.

In Mirror in Parchment (1998), Michael Camille (an historian) argues that the Luttrell Psalter was generally not intended by Sir Geoffrey to be a reliable record of daily life. It was simply the way Sir Geoffrey wished medieval life to be.

Where is it?

In 1896 the Luttrell Psalter was given to the British Museum. Since April 1998 it has been on display in the exhibition galleries of the British Library in London.

Links to other websites