The Luttrell Psalter Film

December 21, 2015 12:05 PM

The Luttrell Psalter is a mid-14th century English illuminated manuscript containing a large number of illustrations of everyday life in medieval England. In 2008 the Psalter was adapted into a 20 minute short film for The Collection Museum in Lincoln, drawing on 35 scenes from the manuscript. There is also a blog describing the making of the film.

A digitized version of the Psalter itself can be seen in its entirety via the British Library, as well as a page with extended commentary on the text and its illustrations.

In addition to its depictions of everyday life, the Psalter is also known for its grotesques and fantastical marginalia.

Not depicted in the film is the scene from the bottom of f157v, showing what appears to be a medieval drinking game that would be recognizable on many college campuses today.

posted by jedicus (4 comments total)

A pretty neat film, thanks. The pedant in me kept wanting to find fault, but overall I thought it was good. I suppose I could moan that the number of hedges in the landscape at the very end of the film was a bit too high, or that they chose not to shed light on the mysterious “hammock” scene in the psalter.
posted by Emma May Smith at 1:25 PM on December 21, 2015

Even though I was kind of hoping for a Terry Gillian-style animation of the psalter itself, this was still quite enjoyable.


Fun fact: falling out of trees while beating acorns for swine was a major cause of death by misadventure in late-medieval England.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:26 PM on December 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Boy am I glad I watched that. Very serene, and lovely views of nature. The historic hand lay lightly over all.
posted by Modest House at 6:18 PM on December 21, 2015

This was good! I was in Lincoln a number of years ago and really loved it. Amazing church and castle, and not a ton of tourists. I have really fond memories of it.
posted by persona au gratin at 12:53 AM on December 22, 2015