Luttrell Psalter (c1330). The Luttrell Psalter is an illuminated psalter commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, lord of the manor of Irnham in Lincolnshire, written and illustrated on parchment circa 1320-1340 in England by anonymous scribes and artists. Along with the psalms, the Luttrell Psalter contains a calendar, canticles, the Mass and an antiphon for the dead. The pages vary in their degree of illumination, but many are richly covered with both decorated text and marginal pictures of saints and Bible stories, and scenes of rural life. It is considered one of the richest sources for visual depictions of everyday rural life in medieval England, even though the last folio is now lost. The Psalter was acquired by the British Museum in 1929 for E31,500 from Mary Angela Noyes, wife of the poet Alfred Noyes, with the assistance of an interest-free loan from the American millionaire and art collector J. P. Morgan. It is now in the collection of the British Library in London, since the separation of the Library from the British Museum. The Luttrell Psalter was created in England sometime between 1320 and 1345, having been commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, lord of the manor of Irnham in Lincolnshire. The date of its completion has not been established with certainty; different scholars have dated the manuscript to several different time periods. Eric Millar writes that the manuscript was made around 1335-40, before the death of Luttrell's wife, Agnes Sutton, because the illustrations show characteristics of the late 'decadence' of the Late East Anglian style. Lucy Sandler prefers to date the creation around 1325-30 because the styles are similar to the other manuscripts of that time. Michelle Brown believes it was made and planned much later, around 1330-45. Luttrell, a wealthy land owner, felt his death was coming and wanted to account for all his actions, as is stated in the colophon of the psalter. The purpose of the manuscript was to help with the provisions for his will, in which Luttrell requested twenty chaplains to recite masses for a five-year period after his death and clerks to recite the Psalms, and other activities for stated levels of monetary remuneration. The creation of the Luttrell Psalter might be connected either to the papal dispensation of 1331 which allowed the Luttrell-Sutton marriage or to the coming of age in 1334 of Andrew Luttrell, Sir Geoffrey's son. Such indications are present in the illustrations in the manuscript. The psalter contains a portrait of Luttrell, at the end of Psalm 109, fully armed and mounted on a war-horse, with an extravagant display of the Luttrell arms. The image is believed to have served to emphasise his knightly status during a marriage union of a family member. To assert his role as patron of the work, the line Dominus Galfridus Louterell me fieri fecit appears above the portrait. The manuscript contains images of beggars and street performers and grotesques, all symbolizing the chaos and anarchy that was present in mediaeval society and feared by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell and his contemporaries. The Luttrell Psalter was composed by one scribe and at least five different artists, all of them with slightly different styles. The first Luttrell artist is referred to as the decorator. He used a linear style of drawing rather than a two-dimensional approach. The second Luttrell artist, the Colourist, often drew images that were more sculptural and modelled by light and shade. He took more notice of human form and posture in his drawings. The third Luttrell artist, the Illustrator, favoured a two-dimensional style. The fourth Luttrell artist, the Luttrell Master, was skilled in rural themes and outlandish grotesques. He also drew the depictions of the Luttrell family. He shows great skill at producing effects of shadow and texture. His technique is very similar to the style used in most of the East Anglian manuscripts of the period. The manuscript came to public notice in 1794, when miniatures of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, his wife and daughter-in-law were reproduced along with a summary of the book. The following is from Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Magazine 1906: The Louterell Psalter, a national relic of priceless value which, while the property of the Weld family, is on loan at the British Museum, from which it had been got down especially for the occasion. The pictorial embellishment of the Psalter shows that the illuminators were artists of vivid perception, strong imaginative faculty, ingenuity and a keen sense of humour, and were closely in touch with the full-bodied homely, racy English life of the period-husbandry, the chase, the use of arms, devotion, domestic, and industrial occupations.