Fifty shades of black: Typologies and terminology of black inks in the light of new discoveries

  • 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. InThe 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.zeige mehrzeige weniger

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Metadaten
Autor*innen:Claudia Colini
Dokumenttyp:Vortrag
Veröffentlichungsform:Präsentation
Sprache:Englisch
Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung:2019
Organisationseinheit der BAM:4 Material und Umwelt
4 Material und Umwelt / 4.5 Kunst- und Kulturgutanalyse
DDC-Klassifikation:Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Chemie / Analytische Chemie
Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / Ingenieurwissenschaften / Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
Freie Schlagwörter:Codicology; Ink terminology; Non destructive analytical techniques
Themenfelder/Aktivitätsfelder der BAM:Chemie und Prozesstechnik
Material
Veranstaltung:First International Conference Oriental Manuscripts: Codicology and Conservation issues
Veranstaltungsort:Saint Petersburg, Russia
Beginndatum der Veranstaltung:04.12.2019
Enddatum der Veranstaltung:06.12.2019
Verfügbarkeit des Dokuments:Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access")
Datum der Freischaltung:06.01.2020
Referierte Publikation:Nein
Eingeladener Vortrag:Nein
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