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 - 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 -