The technical study of a late thirteenth-century Byzantine marginal psalter from the Walters Art Gallery

The pigments and binding media in a late thirteenth-century Byzantine marginal psalter from the Walters Art Gallery (MS W.733) were identified using a variety of analytical techniques. At the same time, the painting methods used by the illuminator were studied and compared with techniques found in two eleventh-century marginal psalters to which the Walters manuscript is closely related. Although there are many parallels with the earlier manuscripts, the miniatures in W.733 are highly idiosyncratic and stand apart from the work of contemporary Byzantine illuminators of the thirteenth century.