Medicine: examining urine
The medieval Church
Medieval Surgery
Rural life: the lazy ploughman
Friar playing music
Dante's Divine Comedy
Harvesting acorns
Living and dead Princes
Golden Haggadah
Noah in the Holkham Bible
Apothecary shop
City walls
Lord at supper
Peasants work the land
The Last Judgement
Hundred Years War
Demons fall into Hell
Chronicle of the Black Death
Genesis picture book
Medieval encyclopedia
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
Peasants' Revolt
Scottish freedom
English cookery manuscript
This page from an illuminated manuscript shows a wealthy lord, Geoffrey Luttrell, and his household being served supper. On the left we see cooks preparing food, and servants bringing the dishes to the table. Wealthy landowners had regular access to freshly killed meat and river fish, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables. Cooked dishes were heavily flavoured with spices, which were imported from overseas, and were very valuable.
Interestingly, underneath this illustration are the verses of Psalm 114:4: ‘I met with trouble and sorrow: and I called upon the name of the Lord’. This deliberate connection between ‘the Lord’ (meaning Jesus) with 'Lord Luttrell' suggests that Luttrell saw himself, like Jesus, as a protector, both of his household and his tenants. The page is from the Luttrell Psalter, one of the most famous medieval manuscripts because of its rich illustrations of everyday life in the 1300s.
Shelfmark: Add. 42130 f.208