Medieval Rural Life in the Luttrell Psalter

Medieval Life in Manuscripts

by Janet Backhouse

The Luttrell Psalter is one of the best-known English manuscripts. Written and illuminated in the early 14th century for Sir Geoffey Luttrell, it is celebrated for its long series of attractive marginal illustrations showing scenes of life in medieval England. The most celebrated sequence of pictures represents the annual cycle of growing crops including plouging, sowing, weeding, harvesting, threshing, and the delivery of the grain. Animal illustrations include domestic boars, geese, pigs, cattle, ferrets, rabbits, birds, cats and mice. Sports, pastimes, entertainers and musicians are all represented, showing the reader that rural life did have a lighter side beyond the routine of work. Janet Backhouse's entertaining study reminds us that although The Luttrell Psalter was created to provide a reflection of the status of the Luttrell family, its preservation has given us a supremely emotive pictorial source for the daily life of rural England.

Genres: History

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Janet Backhouse, a respected authority in her field, was a former curator of illuminated manuscripts for The British Library.

Reviews

[Jennifer Heise]

The text is concise and accurate, if nothing to write home about-- but as with Playboy, you don't read this for the text. The full-color reproductions of the interesting vignettes of rural life from the Psalter are all one could wish for.

[Barb]

When I first read this, I thought the only thing that would make this better is to include more of the illuminations. The complete version has now been published -- and is stunning -- but the price will keep all but the most ardent collectors away from it.

This version remains the best bang for the buck.

[Willa Guadalupe Grant]

Good up close views of this beautiful psalter with commentary on the life it illustrates.