His bindings often include distinct spine attachments and recut block edges for gilding, features that distinguish him from his contemporaries in the trade.
The initials for individual verses, however, are marked by alternating blue and red letters of a uniform size to the main psalm text (a decoration shared by the manuscript's final prayers and litany).
Each rendered in egg tempera with black details, the illuminations utilize the blank parchment as a base for figural skin tones and clothing.
Frames and backgrounds are absent, and the illuminations are based on the psalms and tituli (including Christological interpretations), biblical contexts, and historical commentaries (often author portraits of the introductory texts).
Ten illuminations are described below, each sharing the dominant and largely unified illustrative program (in figural depictions, organization, themes, and colour) of the manuscript.
In a 1931 catalogue for the Kupferstichkabinett, Paul Wescher tentatively places the Psalter's creation in northern Italy in the late twelfth century on the basis of its figurative style and robe depictions.
Edward B. Garrison was the first to suggest that the Psalter bears similarity to Tuscan manuscripts of the twelfth century, especially in its "geometric" decoration of the red and blue initials.
[7] Despite these similarities, he argues that stylistic inconsistencies in the zoomorphic and scrollwork decoration make the Tuscan origin impossible to prove.
[9] In the absence of a calendar, he argues that the concluding litany of saints supports this geographical origin because some of the figures were revered primarily in the Vallombrosian tradition of the region.
e Doni 181), produced in the monastery of St. Paulo a Ripa, shares similar extensive lists of intercessions for each saint as the Hamilton Psalter, as well as a repetition of the Pater noster at the litany's conclusion.
[12] It is likely that the illustrators of the Hamilton Psalter drew on both old and contemporary models of manuscript illumination, often rendering twelfth-century compositions in an Antique or Byzantine style.
86, late tenth century), a manuscript that shares the narrow elongated bodies, bold clothing folds, and short robe lengths of the Hamilton Psalter.
[15] In addition, the folding robes and movements of the figures in the Psalter are similar to the Northern Italian Gospels of Matilda (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. 492, 1071-1099).
[18] While the scene is more animated in Utrecht, featuring Moses smiting the rock as the Israelites tend their fields and beehives (verse 17), the Psalters share an Exodus interpretation of the psalm.
[21] Although set in a lighter colour scheme, the painted E shares the unusual background quadrants, foliate decorations, and clover depictions of the Hamilton Psalter.
[citation needed] The Hamilton Psalter is distinct in attesting to the evolving visual traditions of depicting the psalms through its combination of textual (literal), contextual (historical), and Christological representations.
These illuminations extend the meaning of the psalms into the New Testament and Davidic history, visually suggesting linear temporal interpretations that are emphasized by additional red captions (often referencing other biblical books) in order to guide the reader.
This visual program also details the psalms' history of transmission, both biblically and in the early Church, to draw a parallel with the manuscript's original monastic context.
Despite the often "quickly" executed nature of the illuminations, they retain a largely unified program, sharing similar organizations, colour schemes, and text/image spatial relationships.