TY - JOUR A1 - Nehring, Grzegorz A1 - Gordon, Nehemia A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Distinguishing between seemingly identical inks using scanning μXRF and heat maps N2 - This study will present a new approach to distinguishing writing inks that have the same elemental compositions and visual appearances. The approach is based on displaying the intensity of elemental distributions as heat maps that represent data recorded with a scanning μX-ray fluorescence spectrometer. The heat maps present the data so as to facilitate digitally identifying and distinguishing between inks used to produce, correct, and reink two medieval Torah scrolls. As ritual objects, Torah scrolls had to be written in accordance with exacting standards that evolved over time. This requirement led to successive stages of modifications, sometimes over centuries. Both vitriolic and non-vitriolic inks used to modify Torah scrolls can be visually identical to each other. Furthermore, different non-vitriolic inks usually have an identical elemental composition. The solid material analysis evidence and its presentation as heat maps made it possible to discriminate between original and altered portions of text that in some cases would have been impossible. Our interdisciplinary work brought together conservation, material science, paleog-raphy, and philology to enable the identification of complex stratigraphy in multiple stages of production, correction, and reinking. ©2 0 2 2 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. KW - Spectroscopy KW - Scanning micro-X-ray fluorescence KW - Vitriolic iron-gall inks KW - Non-vitriolic iron-gall inks KW - Heat maps KW - Torah scrolls KW - Scribal corrections PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-557271 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2022.07.007 SN - 1296-2074 VL - 57 SP - 142 EP - 148 PB - Elsevier Masson SAS AN - OPUS4-55727 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Gordon, Nehemia A1 - Calvillo, Nelson T1 - Coloured Ruling Lines in a Fourteenth-Century Ashkenazi Torah Scroll N2 - Rabbinic halakhah required that Torah scrolls be written with relief ruling, horizontal and vertical lines scored into the writing surface. Coloured ruling with plummet or ink would make a Torah scroll invalid for liturgical use. Ruling lines on some leather fragments of early Oriental Torah scrolls give the impression of being produced with plummet or ink but may be the result of dust in the furrows of relief ruling. Erfurt 9, a fourteenth-century Ashkenazi Torah scroll, has coloured ruling, which is partial secondary re-ruling, on 13 of the 34 surviving sheets, perhaps added when the original relief ruling was difficult to see. The coloured ruling in Erfurt 9 is brown, giving it the visual appearance of iron-gall ink. However, XRF tests showed that the only meaningful metallic component in the coloured ruling was lead (Pb). Lead plummet ruling tends to have a greyish appearance. Black specks under near infrared light are consistent with minium, a lead-based red ink that can turn brown when it degrades. Partial secondary re-ruling added with minium to the original relief ruling comes as a surprise as it would have rendered Erfurt 9 unfit for liturgical use. KW - Hebrew Manuscripts KW - Ruling Lines KW - Coloured Ink PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-628531 DO - https://doi.org/10.25592/uhhfdm.17169 SN - 2410-0951 VL - 10 SP - 9 EP - 32 AN - OPUS4-62853 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gordon, Nehemia A1 - Patrick, Andrist A1 - Hahn, Oliver A1 - Vasileiadis, Pavlos D. A1 - Calvillo, Nelson A1 - Rabin, Ira T1 - Did the Original Scribes Write the Distigmai in Codex Vaticanus B of the Bible (Vat. gr. 1209)? N2 - The fourth-century Greek Bible manuscript Codex Vaticanus B (Vat. gr. 1209) contains pairs of horizontally aligned marginal dots known as distigmai, which correspond to textual variants in other manuscripts. The production of the distigmai has been variously dated to the 4th or 16th centuries. A fourth-century date would prove the early existence of hundreds of textual variants, many of which are otherwise only witnessed by later manuscripts. Near infrared microscope reflectography combined with micro-X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy proved that the distigmai, both those categorized as “apricot” (which are visually similar to the ink of the original main text) and “chocolate” (which are visually similar to the reinking of the main text) were written with ink(s) made from chemically purified vitriol, a process that only became standard in the 16th century. As a result, there is no reasonable chance that the distigmai were written in the fourth century. Horizontal lines that have been hypothesized to function as text-critical obeloi were written in the same ink as the original main text, which differs completely from that of the distigmai. In other words, the distigmai and horizontal lines tested were not produced during the same writing session and are separated by more than 1,000 years, making it impossible for them to have functioned as conjoining text-critical symbols in the 4th century. KW - Bible manuscripts KW - New Testament KW - Paratextual features KW - Textual criticism KW - Obelos KW - Septuagint KW - XRF KW - Greek palaeography PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-622902 DO - https://doi.org/10.1163/27728641-00302005 SN - 2772-8633 VL - 3 IS - 2 SP - 125 EP - 156 PB - Brill CY - Leiden AN - OPUS4-62290 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rabin, Ira A1 - Gordon, Nehemia A1 - Cohen, Zina T1 - Inks of the Bologna Scroll: A Preliminary Study N2 - Rotolo 2 at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, also known simply as the “Bologna Scroll,” is currently the oldest known complete Torah scroll without later replacement sheets or significant lacunae. The Bologna Scroll has some unusual scribal features. According to one opinion in the Babylonian Talmud, a Torah scroll must be written with carbon ink to be valid for liturgical use.12 The main inks of the Bologna Scroll are very black, and the inks of the marginal corrections in tiny letters are even blacker. In this study, eh inks were tested by means of XRF-spectroscopy and NIR imaging. Conreary to the expectations, the current tests have definitively determined that the Bologna Scroll was both written and corrected using multiple iron-gall inks. KW - Torah KW - Ink KW - Historic ink PY - 2024 DO - https://doi.org/10.1353/mns.2024.a945374 VL - 9 IS - 2 SP - 222 EP - 242 AN - OPUS4-62264 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -