A variety of "things" are a source of information for the historian. These are artifacts that have come down to us from time immemorial and preserved in private collections and museum collections, finds of archaeologists, obtained by them in the dust and dirt of excavations, these are ancient manuscripts - torn papyri from Egypt, silk scrolls from China, parchment manuscripts of Europe. And they tell a lot about a lot, although not always. Unfortunately, school history textbooks do not pay attention to the historiographic side of the matter at all. That is, what was taken and from where in the captions under the photographs and drawings is not indicated. And this is wrong, however, history textbooks for schools are a special conversation. And today we are interested in "pictures" from medieval illuminated, that is, illustrated books. And we will tell you only about one such book, and the book seems to be not very interesting - the Psalms, that is, a book of religious content.
Khludov Psalter (IX century). On the miniatures (the 13th century, we note that at this time the miniatures of the psalter were completely rewritten), on the left, King David is depicted playing the psalter, on the right, he is also defeating enemies and wild animals. Stored in the collection of handwritten documents of the State Historical Museum in Moscow, No. 129d.
The Psalter of Latrell is kept in the British Library, which contains many of the famous illuminated medieval manuscripts. Everyone who has seen it says that this book is not just very beautiful, but that it is fascinating. And it is famous above all for its funny and colorful images of rural England, grotesque figures of the demon world and the information it contains about the equipment of the knights of medieval England!
This is what the Latrell Psalter page looks like.
This illustrious manuscript (and there is no other way to put it!) Was written and decorated by unknown masters of book business in about 1320-1340, and today it is he who is one of the most striking of all surviving manuscripts of this era. Suffice it to say that the psalter is painted with bright colors, decorated with silver and gilding, and therefore is very beautiful. No less important is the fact that in its nature, whimsical manner of decoration, it is not like any other psalter among all existing ones.
A very popular topic in the Middle Ages: "The storming of the castle of love by the knights." "Psalter of Latrell".
"Storming the castle of love" close-up. The eleta are very clearly visible - the shoulder guards of the knights and the drawings on them, as well as gilded bascinet helmets with a visor, chain mail armor with gilded patch plates on the legs (figure on the left).
Now it is necessary to tell a little about what this psalter is, since this word is quite ancient and is of little use today.
There is a biblical text - "Psalms" - 150 ancient songs, which together are included in one of the books of the Old Testament. In the era of the Middle Ages (as, indeed, now) they became the basis of the Christian doctrine for both the clergy and their flock. Many in the past learned to read from the Psalter. These psalms were often written separately from the Bible itself, with them printed (or handwritten) the calendar of church holidays, and various corresponding times of prayer were added to them. This “book for religious reading” was called the Psalter.
Knightly duel from "Psalter of Latrell". On the left is a European knight, on the right is a Saracen.
The same close-up image.
This manuscript got its name for a reason, it was called so already today by the name of its customer, whose image is present on its pages. He was Geoffrey Luttrell (1276 - 1345) - the owner of the Irnham estate (Lincolnshire, England) - one of the many fiefdoms that belonged to him. His ancestors faithfully served King John (John the Landless - the rebellious brother of King Richard I the Lionheart, whose valor was tirelessly praised by Walter Scott), for which they were awarded land ownership. Jeffrey Luttrell himself married very successfully. His wife's dowry also made up land, which further increased his wealth.
The Psalter of Latrell was first shown to the public in 1794, but it was not until 1929 that the British Museum acquired it from Mary Angela Noyes, wife of the poet Alfred Noyes, for £ 31,500. The manuscript has the following dimensions: leather cover - 370 x 270 mm, page - 350 x 245 mm. The dimensions of the written text are 255 x 170 mm. The psalter was illustrated by several artists at once, which is noticeable by the slight difference in their styles. The first artist is called "Decorator". He used a linear drawing style instead of a two-dimensional approach to drawings. The second artist is called "Colorist", and in the text he owns images of figures such as Christ and the saints. The third artist, Illustrator, is characterized by a flatter and more two-dimensional style of painting compared to the first artist. The fourth artist is called "The Master" and he proved himself to be a specialist in rural themes and outlandish grotesques. He also portrayed the Latrell family. Moreover, it is noted that he used paints with great skill to show the effect of shadow and texture. This technique is very similar to the style of writing manuscripts from eastern England at the time. In general, the iconographic analysis of the illustrations provides a lot of information about the life of Sir Jeffrey Latrell. The British Library produced the facsimile edition of the Psalter in 2006.
Ship 1335 - 1345
What is unusual about Latrell's Psalms?
The medieval tradition was such that, as usual, in luxuriously illustrated medieval psalters, one should depict King David, the alleged author of the Psalms, the faces of saints and some biblical subjects, so to speak, "related to the theme." It was possible to insert images of scenes of peasant labor and life into them, but this psalter differs from others in their number and many completely charming details. These very lively and sometimes even humorous pictures are in fact a real documentary about how the peasants worked and spent their time on the estate of Sir Jeffrey throughout the year. And they testify that he clearly treated them very humanely and that they even had time to play.
Sir Jeffrey Lutrell dines with his family and two Dominican monks.
Turning page after page, we see women who reap wheat and rye (in the Middle Ages, the harvest was not considered a feminine affair - remember Charles Perrault's tale "Puss in Boots", which mentions reapers and mowers, but the harvest had to be harvested as soon as possible so as not to not a grain was lost, so everyone was involved in the harvest), peasant women who feed chickens, scenes of cooking and eating it. Warriors, traders, bear hunters, dancers, musicians, a false bishop along with a dog jumping through a hoop and even a wife who whips her husband (the scene is truly amazing!) - all these pictures were depicted on the lower, upper and even side margins of the pages of the psalter.
Women reapers.
The peasants are threshing bread.
All these "pictures" played a big role in shaping the romantic image of "good old England", in which the rich and virtuous lords lived, the peasants, who rested with the same zeal as they did their work, were, in fact, his children. Today, scholars believe that everyday scenes from life in Latrell's Psalms are rather idealized. But, on the other hand, they were created for the pleasure of Ser Geoffrey, and not at all for his employees. On the other hand, “lying in front of the eyes of the Lord” was a terrible sin, especially on the pages of the “eternal book”. That is, most likely, the author of all these illustrations justified himself by the fact that he considered “but I see it this way”, “this may well be”, “I heard about it somewhere”, “my godfather told me about it”, and so further, that is, his guilt for the distortion of reality, he sort of laid out on many others.
Grain in bags is being carried to the windmill.
The peasant scatters the birds with a sling.
Who was the one who created this manuscript?
It is known that medieval manuscripts were a collective creation, which is why they do not have an author. That is, several people participated in their creation at once. One or several scribes at once wrote the text itself, while some only wrote capital letters, and as many as four artists painted ornaments and illustrations. So "Latrell's Psalter" is the work of one scribe and as a whole "team" of artists, whose names have not reached us, and could not have come down to us in the light of circumstances known to us. Perhaps this book was created in Lincoln, but this is nothing more than an assumption. It is based on the fact that the customer had to live nearby and was interested in periodically visiting the craftsmen and watching the work progress. Indeed, at that time the feudal lords had little entertainment, and so - "I'll go to Lincoln, I'll see how my psalter is written!" - here's entertainment for the whole day!
What are the strange animals depicted in this book?
An impressive decoration, created by a very gifted artist, unofficially called "The Master", are the miniatures in the middle of the book in the so-called "arabesques": these are hybrid monsters with a human head, the body was taken from an animal, fish or bird, but the tail is … plant. In them we see the author's extreme observation and attention to detail, as well as a clear ability for inventiveness and subtle humor. They seem to be in no way connected with the text they accompany. Interestingly, their foliage is depicted as limbs, as in the Hebrew manuscript of the Duke of Sussex, The German Pentateuch. All of these monsters are in stark contrast to the religious figure of a praying man at the beginning of the manuscript.
"Fishman". Monsters are more whimsical and funnier than one another. Moreover, they do not look scary, although they are very unusual. That is, a person with a rich imagination drew them, however, it is not known what this could mean!
"Dragon lion in a hat"
"Dragon Man"
"Piggy"?
Since we are on the VO website, then, of course, we should also be interested in the military aspect of the images in this psalter, and it is really present in it. These are images of Sir Latrell in full knightly gear. It is very well shown that he is wearing a bascinet helmet on his head, playing the role of a comforter, and on top he was still wearing a "big helmet". The top of it, however, is not flat, but of a pointed shape, and besides, it is also equipped with a visor. The shield is quite small, in the shape of an iron. The triangular pennon pennon on his spear indicates that he is a "knight of one shield." Experts calculated that his coat of arms on miniature - clothes and armor is repeated 17 times, that is, Jeffrey Lutrell was really proud of his coat of arms! It is also interesting that the “birds” on the blanket on the right (and elements of the decorations) look from left to right, although following the image on the shield (which is clearly visible on the miniature!), They should have looked from right to left. But this was not accepted, since in this case they would be called "cowardly", as if they turned their backs on the enemy. Therefore, the image on the coat of arms changed when it was applied to the knight's blanket and ammunition!
And this is how the images of Sir Latrell and his family look like on the page of this psalter.
Interestingly, above the equestrian figure of Sir Geoffrey, for some reason, a monster with a toothed fin is depicted, which seems to float across the page from right to left. And below, in the graceful and lush style of the time, typical of the calligraphy of this era, is the inscription: "Lord Geoffrey Luttrell told me to do this."
Interestingly, Sir Geoffrey Luttrell himself did not belong to the very top of 14th century English society. He was just lucky that he found himself an unknown genius, who painted his family psalter in such a bizarre way and thus immortalized the name of this generally not very noble knight from Lincolnshire. Where this artist came from and why we know nothing at all about his other works, it remains a mystery. The only name associated with this masterpiece of medieval manuscripts is the name of Sir Geoffrey himself, the customer of this unique work. But it should be noted that this artist had an excellent sense of humor and a rich imagination, which many other illustrators of medieval manuscripts were deprived of. Interestingly, according to tradition, at the beginning, after the obligatory praise to the Lord, a miniature was placed directly dedicated to the customer. On it, Sir Geoffrey, with a characteristic Norman profile, sits majestically on a huge war horse and takes a helmet from the hands of his no less aristocratic Norman wife. The daughter-in-law stands right there and waits for the opportunity to hand him the shield. Both women wear heraldic gowns, from the designs on which it is easy to establish the presence of kinship between the Luttrell family and the Suttons and the Scrots of Masham. All three of these families were linked by marriage, and on each figure you can see the coats of arms of these families.
Bloodletting.
The little robber picks up other people's cherries.
And of course, the illustrations of Latrell's Psalms are unusual, first of all, in that they tell in great detail about the work of ordinary English peasants. For example, here women are milking sheep in a cramped paddock. The collected milk is carried away in jugs and containers, placing them on the head, just like in the East. And then they will make cheese from it!
