Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Luttrell Psalter


I've just got around to looking at a book that I bought in early 2007. The photo shows the front cover of the book, which immediately suggests the reason that I bought it. It is 36cm high by 25cm wide, it is 7.5cm thick, it weighs over 5kg, and it is by far the largest book that I possess.

It is a facsimile copy of the Luttrell Psalter, which was written and illuminated during the second quarter of the 14th century, and is famed as a source of pictorial information about everyday life during the Middle Ages. A small sample of this can be seen in the photo above.

The original project to create the Luttrell Psalter was very expensive in both time and money. It was commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell who ensured that an image of him and his family appeared in the book, which guaranteed that his name would never be forgotten, as no doubt he intended.

The Luttrell Psalter will be a great source of pictures for me to write about in this blog.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

This amazing volume continues to inspire. We have just made a short Luttrell Psalter Film based on the images in the Psalter. The film is a year in the life of a medieval village. It was made for the museum in Lincoln and is now available on DVD - http://www.luttrellpsalter.co.uk
We hope to continue this work and make a film using the images of Sir Geoffrey, his household and the aristocracy.
Out of curiosity, are you a relation (as far as you know) to the Psalter Luttrells?

Stephen Luttrell said...

I would be very interested to see your DVD, but for some unknown reason I can't get any response from the web server at http://www.luttrellpsalter.co.uk.

Am I related to the Psalter Luttrells? We are trying to trace our ancestry, but we have run into some difficulties with missing records, so I can't say yes/no at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Sorry my fault! http://www.luttrellpsalter.org.uk/

When we first got our copy of the facsimile (which was lent to us prior ro publication), we remained rooted to the spot facinated for about three hours! Even now, each time we look at it we find something new.

Pauline

Anonymous said...

The direct male line died out within a couple of generations of Sir Geoffrey himself, but Luttrell is such an unusual name I can't imagine there not being some sort of connection. However, it is notoriously difficult proving anything that far back.

Stephen Luttrell said...

Thank you for the information.

Anonymous said...

hi my name is teal luttrell, i was just looking through google, and saw this...
any way i was interested on were i might be able to find this DVD?

Stephen Luttrell said...

The first commenter posted the wrong URL. The DVD is at http://www.luttrellpsalter.org.uk/.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know where I can buy a copy of this book? I would be so grateful. Willing to pay a good price. Thankyou

Stephen Luttrell said...

I bought my copy of The Luttrell Psalter from the British Library Online Bookshop, but they appear to have sold out because they don't offer it for sale now.

The Amazon page for The Luttrell Psalter says "Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available", presumably because the item is so expensive they want to be sure of selling any stock they might order in.

My own copy is definitely not for sale, so there the trail ends for now, I’m afraid.

Barbara said...

My ancestors are Geoffrey Luttrell & Agnes de Sutton & was delighted to discover the Luttrell Psalter in my research. For more about this family-you can go to my website: pixleyblair.tribalpages.com & on the home page-upper right-type the name into the 'Find Box'. On Facebook you will also find an entry about The Luttrell Psalter Film that was made in 2008. 'Am quite sure that 'grandfather' Geoffrey would approve.