TY - CONF A1 - Colini, Claudia A1 - Sturkenboom, I. T1 - Chinese paper in Persian manuscript: Preliminary results of a of a codicological, technological and scientific study N2 - In the 15th century, Persian manuscripts underwent significant and lasting changes. Possibly as a response to the import of tinted and gold-decorated paper from China, which was used for manuscript production in Greater Iran, Persian papers were also tinted and embellished with gold-decorated and marbled margins or frames. In a joint project between CSMC and the University of St Andrews, we aim to analyse papers and their decorations in Persian The analyses aim to determine the consistencies of papers, pigments and metals and the techniques used for their production and application. The support will be first described in its codicological characteristics such as dimensions, thickness, colour (expressed in colour coordinates), pattern left from the sieve (observed in transmitted light). The plant used as raw material in paper production will be studied by fibres analysis, while the sizing agents, the pigments, dyes and metals will be analysed by the application of several methods: in particular Reflectography, X-Ray Fluorescence and InfraRed, Raman and Visible Reflectance Spectroscopy. The results of the analyses will form an important resource for the material aspects of Persian manuscripts and be a starting point for establishing a first chronology of the materials and techniques used in Persian manuscript production. An example of the application of the techniques on the analysis of a fragment from a 15th c. Persian Manuscript will be provided. T2 - The Second International Seminar on Traditional Writing and Printing Materials (Fudan University) CY - Shanghai, Republic of China DA - 12.11.2019 KW - Persian manuscript KW - Chinese paper KW - Paper tinting KW - UV-VIS reflectance spectroscopy KW - XRF KW - ATR PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-50131 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Colini, Claudia T1 - Ink for papyri, ink of papyrus: Recipes from the Arabic world N2 - Papyrus was in use in the Islamic world until the 11th century and few ink recipes collected from treatises about the art of the books are dedicated to this support. But papyrus was also burnt in order to obtain soot used as an ingredient for a particular type of ink (midād al-qarāṭīs). In this talk I will give an overview of the recipes – in particular those by ar-Rāzī –, their context and transmission in order to evaluate this double nature of papyrus, which is considered at the same time a writing support and a material to be recycled. Moreover, I will discuss what kinds of ink are most likely to be found, according to these literary sources, on Arabic manuscripts and documents written on papyrus and compare them to the typologies mentioned for paper and parchment. These results are the premises of a research project starting at the beginning of 2019, in which a number of dated fragments from several European institutions will be analysed with non-destructive techniques in order to establish a profile of the main writing media used in the early centuries of the Islamic Era. T2 - 29th International Congress of Papyrology CY - Lecce, Italy DA - 28.07.2019 KW - Inks KW - Arabic recipes KW - Papyrus PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-50158 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Colini, Claudia T1 - Fifty shades of black: Typologies and terminology of black inks in the light of new discoveries N2 - The identification of the materials constituting an artefact is the basis of any correct conservation project. For this reason (among others) in the last 50 years analytical techniques have been applied to the study of manuscripts. Unfortunately, the scientific investigation of Arabic books is still uncommon, focusing mainly on single case studies of illuminated manuscripts where the black media used to write the text is largely overlooked. This lack of knowledge prompted a recent research in which black ink recipes have been collected from written Arabic sources, their feasibility has been assessed, and some of them have been reproduced. These samples were artificially aged and analysed through an array of analytical techniques, mostly non-invasive and non-destructive, in order to build a database of Arabic inks and their ingredients and to verify the detection limits of the equipment employed. Finally, the results were compared to the data collected from historical manuscripts. In this talk I will focus on the ink typologies and the terminology (ancient and modern) used to describe them. In particular I will highlight how even the modern classification fails to capture the variety encountered in both recipes and manuscripts, particularly in the light of recent discoveries. I will address especially the terminological and conceptual issues of mixed inks – in the form of carbon inks and tannins, of carbon and iron gall inks, and of carbon and metallic salts –, iron gall inks made without vitriol and iron gall inks made with sources of tannins different from gall nuts. T2 - First International Conference Oriental Manuscripts: Codicology and Conservation issues CY - Saint Petersburg, Russia DA - 04.12.2019 KW - Ink terminology KW - Codicology KW - Non destructive analytical techniques PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-50159 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Colini, Claudia T1 - Ink recipes from the islamic era: Texts, manuscripts, ink reproductions and scientific analyses N2 - Ink recipes can often be found in Arabic manuscripts. They may be included in treatises of diverse subjects – from handbooks for secretaries or calligraphers to books on arts and crafts, to alchemical and astrological essays. Recipes can also appear, with or without relation to the main text in the manuscript, in the form of lists or collections or even added in empty spaces as single entries. Why were these recipes written down? Were they used by the many professionals dealing with inks in their every-day work? Or were they part of the literary genre of adab with little or no practical application? To answer these questions a research project was set up: ink recipes have been collected from written Arabic sources, their feasibility has been assessed and some of them have been reproduced. These samples were artificially aged and analysed through an array of analytical techniques, most non-invasive and non-destructive, and the results compared to the data obtained by the application of the same analyses on concrete manuscripts. The codicological characteristics of the manuscripts have also been studied. My aim in this talk is to show how such an interdisciplinary approach could be beneficial for the study of material culture. T2 - Broadening Horizons 6 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 24.06.2019 KW - Inks KW - Arabic Recipes KW - Non destructive analytical techniques PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-50160 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Colini, Claudia T1 - Analyses of decorated papers: Potential and preliminary results on persianate manuscripts from 15th – 17th centuries N2 - This talk will be divided into two parts. In the first part I will present the analytical techniques and the equipment used by the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures that can be applied for the study of decorated papers. The analyses aim to determine the constituent materials of papers, pigments, dyes and metals and the techniques used for their production. I will focus in particular on the kind of information these techniques allow us to gather: through optical microscopy we conduct fibre analysis in order to identify the plant used as raw material in paper production while Reflectography, X-Ray Fluorescence and InfraRed, Raman and Visible Reflectance Spectroscopy are used to study the sizing agents, the pigments, dyes and metals. In the second part I will show some results obtained by the application of these techniques on a few Persianate manuscripts, dating between the 15th and 17th centuries, belonging to the corpus of Ilse Sturkenboom. T2 - Symposium Decorated Paper in Early Modern Islamic Cultures CY - Istanbul, Turkey DA - 23.11.2019 KW - XRF KW - UV-VIS Reflectance spectroscopy KW - Fibre analysis KW - Persian manuscripts KW - Chinese Paper KW - FTIR spectroscopy PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-50161 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Colini, Claudia A1 - Sturkenboom, I. T1 - Analyses of paper, tinting and illumination in persian manuscripts held in the Golestan Palace library N2 - In the 15th century, Persian manuscripts underwent significant and lasting changes. Possibly as a response to the import of tinted and gold-decorated paper from China, which was used for manuscript production in Greater Iran, Persian papers were also tinted and embellished with gold-decorated and marbled margins or frames. In a joint project between CSMC and the University of St Andrews, and in co-operation with the Golestan Palace Museum, we aim to analyse papers and their decorations in manuscripts in the holdings of the Golestan Palace Library. The analyses aim to determine the consistencies of papers, pigments and metals and the techniques used for their production and application. The support will be first described in its codicological characteristics such as dimensions, thickness, colour (expressed in colour coordinates), pattern left from the sieve (observed in transmitted light). The plant used as raw material in paper production will be studied by fibres analysis, while the sizing agents, the pigments, dyes and metals will be analysed by the application of several methods: in particular Reflectography, X-Ray Fluorescence and InfraRed, Raman and Visible Reflectance Spectroscopy. The results of the analyses will be published in an online database that will form an important resource for the material aspects of Persian manuscripts and be a starting point for establishing a first chronology of the materials and techniques used in Persian manuscript production. T2 - DFG workshop at Golestan Palace CY - Tehran, Iran DA - 07.04.2019 KW - Persian manuscripts KW - Chinese paper KW - Non destructive analytical techniques KW - Tinting KW - Gold PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-50164 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Colini, Claudia T1 - The Interdisciplinary Alchemist: Reproduction and Study of Black Inks from the Islamicate World N2 - The identification of the materials constituting an artefact is the basis of any correct conservation project, for this reason (among others) in the last 50 years analytical techniques have been applied to the study of manuscripts. Unfortunately, the scientific investigation of Arabic books is still uncommon, focusing mainly on single case studies, often producing unclear results, especially for black inks. This lack of knowledge prompted a recent research in which black ink recipes have been collected from written Arabic sources on bookmaking, their feasibility has been assessed, and finally some of them have been reproduced. These samples were artificially aged and analysed through an array of analytical techniques, mostly non-invasive and non-destructive, in order to build a database of Arabic inks and their ingredients and also to verify the detection limits of the portable equipment employed. In this talk I will present some instances of how this approach can help textual criticism, for example in evaluating variants and determining the competence of authors and compilers. At the same time the research highlights how much this scientific work depends on textual studies, especially concerning the identification of ingredients. Moreover, I will focus on some of the problematics I faced both during the textual interpretation and the actual reproduction of the recipes and how they influenced the results of the scientific analyses. In particular I’ll look into the role played by the degree of purity of the components and the function (real and perceived) of some of the ingredients. T2 - International Medieval Conference 2019 CY - Leeds, UK DA - 01.07.2019 KW - Black Ink KW - Arabic Recipes KW - Interdisciplinary PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-50114 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -