A Psalter with some bestiary and other animal scenes in marginal illustrations, as well as numerous animal illustrations as line fillers. There are also many hybrid creatures and grotesques, and a series of farming scenes (folio 169v-173v). There are hundreds of illustrations, some tiny, and many showing great artistic skill. They are mostly pen drawings with a color wash. There are few drawings after folio 215r, with the exception of folio 266r where the artist filled almost every available space with an explosion of animals, geometric forms, grotesques and decorative foliage.

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[From Backhouse, 1997 page 113]

...this psalter was made for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell of Irnham in Lincolnshire (died 1345). Its illumination, though less polished than that of some of the slightly earlier manuscripts the period, is of unsurpassed vitality and marks the last stage of the East Anglian style. No directly comparable work is known.

The subjects of the marginal paintings on ff. 13-108, 145-214 (gatherings ii-ix, xiii-xviii) may be classified as follows:

(b) Animals and mythological beings, including:

• Unicorn, f. 15
• Fox with goose, f. 31
• Hawk, hooded and belied, f. 33v
• Dragon-fly, f. 36v.
• Robin, parrot, crow(?) and jay, f. 51
• Bell-wether, f. 59
• Kingfisher, f. 61
• Woodwose, f. 70
• Mermaid, f. 70v
• Goldfinch, f. 73
• Goat, f. 76
• Tiger with mirror, f. 84v
• Pheasant, f. 84v
• Snail, f. 159
• Bull, f. 159v
• Snail, f. 160
• Griffin, f. 160v
• Bat, f. 164
• Centaur with bow and arrow, f. 164
• Ram with four homs, f. 169
• Reptiles on a mound, f. 185
• Centaur, armed as a knight, attacking a boar, f. 187
• Monkey with cloak, seated, f. 189v
• Cat and mouse, f. 190, f. 204

Additional Descriptions

Additional description

Editions and Facsimiles

Printed facsimiles

The Folio Society, 2006

Digital facsimiles

British Library