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Add MS 42130
- Record Id:
- 032-002085986
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002085986
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000052.0x000125
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 42130
- Title:
-
Psalter ('The Luttrell Psalter') with calendar and additional material
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-12v: Calendar, with the feasts of the following English saints included: Edward (18 March); Augustine (26 May); Translation of Thomas of Canterbury (7 July); Wilfrid (12 October); Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln (17 November); Edmund (20 November); Thomas of Canterbury (29 December). The title 'Papa' and references to the feasts of Thomas of Canterbury (except his Translation) have been scored through with a pen;
ff. 13r-259v: Psalter, Gallican version;
ff. 259v-283r: Canticles and the 'Quicumque vult': Confitebor tibi Domine (f. 259v); Ego dixi in dimidio dierum meorum (f. 260v); Exsultavit cor meum in Domino (f. 262r); Cantate Domino gloriose enim magnificatus est (f. 263v); Domine audivi auditionem tuam (f. 266); Audite caeli quae loquor (f. 268v); Te Deum laudamus te Dominum confitemur (f. 273v); Benedicite omnia opera Domini Domino (f. 275v); Benedictus exaltatus in secula (f. 277r); Magnificat anima mea dominum (f. 278v); Nunc dimittis (f. 279r); Quicumque vult saluus esse (f. 279v);
ff. 283v-293v: Litany and prayers;
ff. 293v-295v: Five collects: Deus cui proprium est (ff. 293v-294r); Omnipotens sempiterne deus quie facis mirabilia (ff. 294r); Pretende domine famulis et famulabus (ff. 294r-294v); Deus qui es sanctorum tuorum splendor (ff. 294v-295r); Deus propicius esto michi miserimo peccatori (ff. 295r-295v);
ff. 296r-309v: Office of the Dead, use of Sarum, incomplete, breaking off at the 3rd versicle after the 9th lesson, with musical notation. Marginal additions (14th-15th century) give alternative cues for the responses to the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th lessons at Matins, for example, 'Subvenite sancti dei' (f. 303r), 'Domine secundum actum meum' (f. 308r).
Decoration:
The Calendar (ff. 1r-12v) contains:
10 large hybrids in colours in the outer margins, 12 decorated initials with foliate partial borders in colours with gold and initials in red, blue and gold with penwork decoration.
The Psalter (ff. 13r-259v) contains:
One framed bas-de page miniature with full border (f. 202v). Over 400 decorated borders with bas-de page scenes in colours with gold, containing a variety of figural, foliate, monstrous, genre and religious motifs (on every page from f. 13r to f. 215r and infrequently to f. 259v). 10 large (usually 4-line) historiated initials at beginning of the major Psalms: ff. 13r (Ps. 1), 51r (Ps. 26), 75v (Ps. 38), 97v (Ps. 51), 98v (Ps. 52), 121v (Ps. 68), 149r (Ps. 80), 174r (Ps. 97), 177v (Ps. 101), 203r (Ps. 109).
The remainder of the volume (ff. 259v-309v) contains:
1 historiated initial (f. 263v) with partial border in colours with gold. A full border with a bas-de page scene (f. 266r). Framed initials in colours with gold, with zoomorphic or foliate decoration, at the beginning of the remaining Psalms. Square and diamond-shaped musical notation on a stave of four red lines in the Office of the Dead (ff. 296r-309v).
The subjects of the large historiated initials in the Psalter are:
f. 13r: Psalm 1, David, enthroned, playing the harp;
f. 51r: Psalm 26, Standing figure of Christ pointing to his eye;
f. 75v: Psalm 38, David pointing to his tongue;
f. 97v: Psalm 51, A nimbed figure with pincers pulling the tongue of a seated man;
f. 98v: Psalm 52, A fool holding a bladder balloon or bauble;
f. 121v: Psalm 68, A bearded, crowned king, standing naked in water up to his chest in a shaft sunk into the earth;
f. 149r: Psalm 80, David, enthroned, playing a psaltery;
f. 174r: Psalm 97, Five clerics in vestments singing from a book containing musical notation on a lectern;
f. 177v: Psalm 101, Man kneeling before the Lord in the heavens;
f. 203r: Psalm 109, The Lord, enthroned, with a king seated at His right hand (Christ the King or King David).
The subjects of the smaller historiated initials are:
f. 14v: Christ blessing;
f. 15v: Bust of a young man;
f. 16v: Head of the Lord, listening from above to the prayer of a kneeling bearded king;
f. 18r: Bust of a king;
f. 20v: Christ showing his wounds;
f. 28r: Bust of a fool wearing a jester's hood with a bell on the end;
f. 38v: A man knocking at the door of a gilded triple spired church, surrounded by waves or clouds;
f. 40r: A king kneeling in prayer;
f. 46v: Head of a bearded man;
f. 53v: The beheading of John the Baptist by a blue-coloured executioner with a golden sword (the execution takes place in a building resembling the Tower of London);
f. 61r: A lady playing a rote;
f. 68r: Head of a lady;
f. 79v: A man confronted by two beggars;
f. 81r: Christ with a kneeling soul;
f. 86r: The Virgin and Child, with a bird;
f. 88r: Christ with David kneeling;
f. 89r: David with seven men, all clapping hands;
f. 90r: Two hybrid creatures (human heads with serpent tails and wings);
f. 157r: David praying to a head with a halo;
f. 158v: A prelate reading or singing from a book to a hybrid creature;
f. 165r: Christ standing and blessing;
f. 166v: Christ holding a book, with a kneeling man;
f. 170v: Two trumpeters;
f. 171v: Two laymen singing;
f. 176v: Two birds singing;
f. 180r: A soul praying to a head with halo;
f. 185v: The Lord, seated with head on hand, hearing the confession of a kneeling young man;
f. 205v: Three boys kneeling;
f. 263v: Two clerks singing with music on a lectern.
The subjects of the bas-de-page scenes include:
ff. 86r-96v: Scenes from the life of Christ;
f. 147v: Archers practising;
f. 158r: A miller in his windmill;
f. 161r, Bear-baiting;
f. 161v, A ship in full sail;
f. 163v: A wattle pen full of sheep;
f. 164v: The city of Constantinople;
ff. 169v-174v: A sequence of agricultural scenes such as ploughing (f. 170r), sowing (f. 170v), breaking up clods (f. 171v), and weeding (f. 172);
f. 181r: A watermill;
ff. 181v-182r: A carriage decorated with eagles and gold fabric, with ladies inside, pulled by a team of five horses;
f. 193r: Women spinning;
f. 196v: A boy stealing cherries from a tree;
f. 202v: A knight with the Luttrell arms, mounted, armed, and attended by two women identified by their heraldic surcoats as Agnes Sutton (d. 1340) and Beatrice Le Scrope (the wife and the daughter-in-law of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell);
f. 206v: Roasting meat;
f. 207r: Stewing, chopping green vegetables, and pounding with a pestle and mortar;
f. 207v: Carving the meat and serving the feast;
f. 208r: A feasting scene at a table;
f. 266r: Two deer grazing, one scratching its nose.
Coats of arms are found throughout the manuscript, including ff. 59, 157, 163, 171 (Luttrell: azure, a bend between six martlets argent); f. 41 (Sutton: or a lion rampant vert); f. 161 (Scrope: azure a bend or, a label of five points argent).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002085986", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 42130: Psalter ('The Luttrell Psalter') with calendar and additional material" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002085986
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002085986
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- A parchment codex.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_42130 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1325
- End Date:
- 1340
- Date Range:
- 1325-1340
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 350 x 245mm (text space 255 x 170mm).
Foliation: ff. iii + 309 (f. i is a front parchment flyleaf; ff. ii and iii are flyleaves of paper kept separately with an earlier detached former binding; 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the end which contains animal gum on its verso in the shape of turn-ins of the leather covering to one of the earlier sets of binding boards [the same the recto of f. i]).
Collation: i-xvi12(ff. 1-192), xvii10(ff. 193-202), xviii-xxv12(f. 203-298), xxvi12-1(ff. 299-309). Catchwords in a box surround at the end of each quire except i, xvii and xxiii.
Script: Gothic.
Layout: Single column of 14 lines in a frame-ruling.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather with tooling including a Tudor rose-style emblem.
A binding of brown calf with gold and silver tooling, made in Cambridge, c. 1625-1640, is kept with the remains of 14th-century cords and sewing, now stored separately as Add MS 42130/1.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England, N. (Lincolnshire).
Provenance:
Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (b. 1276; d. 1345) of Irnham, Lincolnshire: inscription: 'Dns. Galfridus Louterell me fieri fecit' and accompanying miniature (f. 202v) of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, mounted, armed, and attended by his wife Agnes (d. 1340), daughter of Sir Richard de Sutton, and his daughter-in-law Beatrice, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Scrope of Masham, all with coats of arms (Luttrell: azure, a bend between six martlets argent; Sutton: or a lion rampant vert; Scrope: azure a bend or, a label of five points argent).
The FitzAlan family, earls of Arundel: obits in the calendar (ff. 1r-12v) in late 14th- or early 15th-century hands, of Richard FitzAlan, 3rd Earl of Arundel (d. 24 January 1375/6), Eleanor his wife, daughter of Henry Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (d. 11 January 1372), Joan, daughter of Eleanor and wife of the Humphrey de Bohun (d. 17 April 1419); Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (d. 17 January 1375), Eleanor, widow of Roger, 3rd Baron de la Warr, and niece of Eleanor, Countess of Arundel, above (d. 17 June 1387).
Lord William Howard (b. 1563, d. 1640) of Naworth: his name inscribed on f. 1r: 'Will' Howard. Noward'.
Mary Charlton, wife of Sir Edward Charlton, Baronet, of Hesleyside, county Northumberland: owned by her before 1703: inscription on f. 12v (see below).
Sir Nicholas Sherburne (Shireburn), Baronet, of Stonyhurst: his inscription on f. 12v, 'Liber Nich: Scireburn ex dono Dam: Mariae Charleton de Cartington [i.e. his mother-in-law, Mary, wife of Sir Edward Charlton, Bart., daughter and coheiress of Sir Edward Widdrington, Bart., of Cartington] Ap: An: Do: 1703'. Other signatures of Sir Nicholas Sherburne are on ff. i recto, 18r, 283v, 309v.
The Weld family inherited Sir Nicholas Sherburne's estate at Stonyhurst in 1754, and the Psalter may have come into their possession at that time.
Thomas Weld (b. 1750, d. 1810) of Lulworth Castle, grandson of Humphrey Weld: his armorial bookplate (f. iii). His descendants deposited the manuscript in the Museum on indefinite loan during the years 1896-1906, 1909-1929.
Herbert Weld, offered for sale by him: Sotheby's sale-catalogue, London, 29 July 1929, lot 10, but withdrawn prior to auction.
Mrs Mary Angela Noyes, née Mayne (b. 1889, d. 1976), widow of Lieutenant Richard Shireburn Weld-Blundell and wife of Alfred Noyes, poet (b. 1880, d. 1958), sold privately by her to the British Museum for 30,000 guineas. The money was loaned interest-free for one year by Mr John Pierpoint Morgan, Jr (b. 1867, d. 1943), American financier, philanthropist and art collector, and repaid with funds raised by public subscription, with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund in 1930 (see discussion in Backhouse, 'The Sale of the Luttrell Psalter' (1996), pp. 113-28).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
G. D. Hobson, Bindings in Cambridge Libraries (Cambridge: University Press, 1929), pls. XLI, nos. 25, 39, XLII.
E. G. Millar, The Luttrell Psalter (London: British Museum, 1932) [Facsimile edition].
H. M. Nixon, Broxbourne Library, Styles and Designs of Bookbindings (London: Maggs Brothers, 1956), p. 130.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1926-1930 (London: British Museum, 1959), pp. 195-202.
Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London, British Museum, 1967), no. 27.
Francis Klingender, Animals in Art and Thought to the End of the Middle Ages, ed. by Evelyn Antal and John Harthan (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971), p. 408, pl. 241.
Lucy Freeman Sandler, The Peterborough Psalter in Brussels and other Fenland Manuscripts (London: Harvey Miller, 1974), pp. 98-99, 136, 161, 171.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), pl. 39.
Jonathan Alexander, 'Painting and Manuscript Illumination for Royal Patrons in the Later Middle Ages' in English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages, ed. by V. J. Scattergood and J. W. Sherborne (London: Duckworth, 1983), pp. 141-62 (p. 161).
Lucy Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 5 (London: Harvey Miller, 1986), I, pls. 274-278, 280, 282, II, pp. 118-21.
Janet Backhouse, The Luttrell Psalter (London: British Library, 1989).
Michael Gullick, Calligraphy (London: Studio Editions, 1990), pl. 18.
Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (London: Reaktion, 1992), p. 103, pl. 52.
Janet Backhouse, 'The sale of the Luttrell Psalter' in Antiquaries, Book Collectors and the Circles of Learning, ed. by R. Myers and M. Harris (Winchester: St Paul's Bibliographies, 1996), pp. 113-28.
Lucy Freeman Sandler, ‘The Word in the Text and the Image in the Margin: The Case of the Luttrell Psalter’, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 54, Essays in Honour of Lilian M. C. Randall (1996), 87-97.
Michael Camille, Mirror in Parchment: The Luttrell Psalter and the Making of Medieval England (London: Reaktion Books, 1998).
Joyce Coleman, 'New Evidence about Sir Geoffrey Luttrell's Raid on Sempringham Priory, 1312', The British Library Journal, 25 (1999), 103-28.
Janet Backhouse, Medieval Rural Life in the Luttrell Psalter (London: British Library, 2000).
John Higgitt, The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and the Gaelic West (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 154, 157.
Lucy Freeman Sandler, ‘The Images of Words in English Gothic Psalters’, in Studies in the Illustration of the Psalter, ed. by Brendan Cassidy and Rosemary Muir Wright (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 2000), pp. 67-86 (pp. 68, 72-76, 81, pls. 16-21).
Jonathan Alexander, 'An English Illuminator's Work in Some Fourteenth-Century Law Books at Durham' in Studies in Italian Manuscript Illumination ed. by Jonathan Alexander (London: Pindar Press, 2002), pp. 55-64 (p. 59).
Alixe Bovey, Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 47, 50, pl. 40.
Richard Verdi, ‘Saved!': 100 Years of the National Art Collections Fund (London: Hayward Gallery, 2003), no. 38 [exhibition catalogue].
Debra Higgs Strickland, Saracens, Demons, & Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), p. 13, pl. 4, fig. 86.
Justin Clegg, The Medieval Church in Manuscripts (London: The British Library, 2003), fig. 22.
Alixe Bovey, The Chaworth Roll: A Fourteenth-century Genealogy of the Kings of England (London: Sam Fogg, 2004), p. 26.
Michael Camille, ‘Bodies, Names and Gender in a Gothic Psalter (Paris, NBF, ms lat. 10435)’, in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by F. O. Büttner, (Belgium: Brepols, 2004), pp. 377-86 (p. 377).
Michaela Braesel, ‘The Influence of Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts on the Pre-Raphaelites and the Early Poetry of William Morris’, Journal of William Morris Studies, 15.4 (2004), 41-54 (p. 42).
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 241.
Richard Ovenden, ‘The libraries of the antiquaries (c. 1580-1640) and the idea of a national collection’, in The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, ed. by Elisabeth Leedham-Green and Teresa Webber, 3 vols (Cambridge: University Press, 2006), I: To 1640, pp. 527-61 (p. 541).
Michelle Brown, The Luttrell Psalter: A Facsimile with Commentary (London: The Folio Society, 2006).
Michelle Brown, The World of the Luttrell Psalter (London: British Library, 2006).
Michelle Brown, The Holkham Bible: A Facsimile (London, British Library, 2007), p. 16.
Deirdre Jackson, Marvellous to Behold: Miracles in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), pl. 36, 55.
Elizabeth Morrison, Beasts: Factual & Fantastic (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007), p. 70.
Sacred: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their Sacred Texts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 151. [exhibition catalogue].
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), p. 101, pl. 57.
Nick Loven and the Lincolnshire Heritage Filmmakers, The Luttrell Psalter Film (Crow's Eye Productions, 2008) [viewed online 05.08.2013 at http://wagscreen.wordpress.com/the-luttrell-psalter-film/].
James Robinson, Masterpieces: Medieval Art (London, British Museum, 2008), pp. 160-61.
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pl. 13.
Kathryn A. Smith, 'Margin', Studies in Iconography, 33 (2012), 29-44.
Kathleen Doyle, 'The Luttrell Psalter', in Lincolnshire's Great Exhibition: Treasures, Saints and Heroes (London: Scale Arts & Heritage, 2015), pp. 64-79.
Richard Olney, 'Lincholnshire's landed elite 1215-2015', in Lincolnshire's Great Exhibition: Treasures, Saints and Heroes (London: Scale Arts & Heritage, 2015), pp. 80-99 (pp. 94-96, pl. on p. 94).
Paul Binski, ‘An Early Miniature Copy of the Choir Vault of Wells Cathedral at Irnham, Lincolnshire’, JBBA,169 (2016), 59-70.
Kathryn A. Smith, ‘Found in Translation: Images Visionary and Visceral in the Welles-Ros Bible’, Gesta 59: 2 (2020), 91-130 (p. 110 n. 93).
- Exhibitions:
- Lincolnshire's Greatest, The Collection, Lincoln, 19 June 2015 - 13 September 2015
Picturing places, (online), 27 April 2017-
The Middle Ages, (online), 26 March 2015- - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- Exhibited: Lincolnshire's Greatest, The Collection, Lincoln, 19 June 2015 - 13 September 2015