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Through the application of scientific methods of analysis to a corpus of medieval manuscripts found in the Cairo Genizah, this work aims to gain a better understanding of the writing materials used by Jewish communities at that time, shedding new light not only on the production of manuscripts in the Middle Ages, but also on the life of those Jewish communities.
In recent years the BAM has been focusing on the characterization of the writing materials of the medieval Torah scrolls. The challenge imposed by the study of this specific type of manuscript led to designing and building dedicated stages to ensure the safety of the scrolls during the analysis. Furthermore, the identification of multiple corrections executed in apparently identical inks required broadening the standard two-step protocol of near infrared reflectography and X-ray fluorescence to include multispectral imaging. This work has prepared the division to participate in the large collaborative project “To roll: Materialisierte Heiligkeit (Materialised Holiness)” based at the Free University, Berlin.
The presentation will demonstrate the aims of the studies, preliminary results and the strategies adopted by the division 4.5 of the BAM.
Conclusion et piste:
Il semblerait qu’il n’existe pas de corrélation entre le type d’encre utilisés et d’autres critères recherchés à part une marque de préférence personnelle, sauf en ce qui concerne des documents religieux, auquel cas une différence se fait en function de la communauté.
Les résultats réunis dans cette étude semble indiquer que les scribes achètent leur propre encre.
L’analyse des encres peut nous aider à retracer une chronologie de l’écriture et signature de certains documents juridiques.
Élargissement du corpus:
- Comparaison avec des documents écrits par la cour du Qadi
- Documents d’autres collections
- Avec d’autres documents contemporains (Génizah Afghane)
Results:
- Four types of inks were measured iron gall (vitriolic and non vitriolic), carbonic, mixed and vegetable inks.
- We need to start analyzing systematically the organic part of the inks.
- Great variety in the composition of the inks.
- No correlation between the type of ink used and any other criteria apart from a personal preference.
- Inks purchased by (some) scribes.
- Reconstruction of the chronology of writing and signing of certain legal documents.
- Comparison with documents written by the Muslim court.
Black writing materials of different types and compositions have varied in use over time and different geographical regions. With this paper, we would like to contribute to their study by listing and reviewing recipes for black writing inks that were in circulation in the Carolingian Empire as well as by referencing the archaeometric analyses of the black inks used in the manuscripts. The studies presented here that involved the humanities and natural sciences provide new insights into how the scholars of the early Medieval Ages organized manuscripts.
The Cairo Geniza is an “archive” discovered in the 19th century in Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, a district in Old Cairo (Egypt). The collection of mostly Jewish documents that vary in genres, languages and writing supports contains a large number of early medieval Hebrew manuscripts.
The Geniza provides sources for the literary, linguistic, historical studies of the various aspects Jewish life. As the documents attest, at least two Jewish communities co-existed in Fustat up to 11th century: a so-called Babylonian and Palestinian. These communities had different leaders, different traditions and lived independently. The differences seem to manifest themselves also in the paleographical, codicological and some material properties of the manuscripts produced by each community.
The aim of this project is to compare the inks used in the Jewish documents depending on different variables: support (paper, parchment), purpose of the manuscript (legal, private, religious), provenance of the scribe. For the determination of the inks type and composition we had to choose non-invasive, non-destructive and portable techniques to analyze the corpus directly on-situ.
The analyses were carried out with a micro-X-ray spectrometer ArtTAX® (Bruker GmbH) and a digital stereomicroscope features built-in LED illumination at 395 nm and 940nm, Dino Lite.
We would like to stress that though the methods of material analysis listed above have been successfully employed in the field of cultural heritage and conservation including ancient and medieval manuscripts they have not yet been used to study fragments from the Cairo Genizah. Therefore, we believe that this research project is a pioneering study that will provide new insights into the history of Hebrew writing materials, their production techniques and materials and, thus, contribute new data to the field of Hebrew paleography.
L'archéométrie est une discipline riche qui peut nous apporter beaucoup d'informations sur l'étude des manuscrits et qui, conjuguée à la paléographie et la codicologie, peut s'apporter un outil précieux pour mieux appréhender les sociétés qui ont produits ces manuscrits.
Nous verrons ici quelques exemples de techniques scientifiques non destructives, principalement appliqués à la Génizah du Caire, appliquées à l'étude des manuscrits.
This study focuses on the analysis of a corpus of manuscripts found in Fustat (medieval Cairo, Egypt) in the biggest medieval “archive” found until now: the Cairo Geniza. The giant collection of mostly Jewish documents has been attracting scholars’ attention a lot but so far, the material aspects of these documents seem to have been mainly neglected.
Application of scientific methods of analysis, especially X-Ray fluorescence characterization, contributes to our understanding of the materials used for production of manuscripts during the Middle ages.
Our corpus of the 11th century manuscripts comprises manuscripts written by scribes belonging to three Jewish communities that co-existed in Cairo during this period: the Karaites, the so-called Jerusalemites (or Palestinian) and the so-called Babylonians (or Iraqi), three different communities with different traditions and different leaders. The differences manifest themselves also in the paleographical properties of the manuscripts produced within each community. Can we extend the differences detected by the paleographical analysis to differences in composition of the writing materials and especially the composition of the inks? Or can we relate the differences in the composition to the manuscript type (legal, private...), or to another criterion. In this presentation, we offer answers to some of the questions using statistical analysis of the measurements results.
This study focuses on the analysis of a corpus of manuscripts found in Fustat (medieval Cairo, Egypt) in the biggest medieval “archive” found until now: the Cairo Geniza. The giant collection of mostly Jewish documents has been attracting scholars’ attention a lot but so far, the material aspects of these documents seem to have been mainly neglected.
Application of scientific methods of analysis, especially X-Ray fluorescence characterization, contributes to our understanding of the materials used for production of manuscripts during the Middle ages.
Our corpus of the 11th century manuscripts comprises manuscripts written by scribes belonging to three Jewish communities that co-existed in Cairo during this period: the Karaites, the so-called Jerusalemites (or Palestinian) and the so-called Babylonians (or Iraqi), three different communities with different traditions and different leaders. The differences manifest themselves also in the paleographical properties of the manuscripts produced within each community. Can we extend the differences detected by the paleographical analysis to differences in composition of the writing materials and especially the composition of the inks? Or can we relate the differences in the composition to the manuscript type (legal, private...), or to another criterion. In this presentation, we offer answers to some of the questions using statistical analysis of the measurements results.
The Cairo Geniza is an “archive” discovered in the 19th century in Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, a district in Old Cairo (Egypt), located south of the center of modern Cairo. The giant collection of mostly Jewish documents that vary in genres, languages and writing supports contains a large number of early medieval Hebrew manuscripts, mostly in fragmentary form. The larger part of the Cairo Geniza is stored today in the Cambridge University Library (CUL).
The Geniza provides sources for the literary, linguistic, historical studies of the various aspects Jewish life. As the documents attest, at least two Jewish communities co-existed in Fustat up to 11th century: a so-called Babylonian and Palestinian. These communities had different leaders, different traditions and lived independently. The differences seem to manifest themselves also in the paleographical, codicological and some material properties of the manuscripts produced by each community.
The aim of this project is to compare the inks used in the Jewish documents depending on different variables: support (paper, parchment), purpose of the manuscript (legal, private, religious), provenance of the scribe. For the determination of the inks type and composition we had to choose non-invasive, non-destructive and portable techniques to analyse the corpus directly in the CUL.
The analyses were carried out with a mobile energy dispersive micro-X-ray spectrometer ArtTAX® (Bruker GmbH, Berlin, Germany), which consists of an air-cooled, low-power molybdenum tube, polycapillary X-ray optics (measuring spot size 70 µm in diameter), an electrothermally cooled Xflash detector, and a CCD camera for sample positioning (Bronk et al 2001, Hahn et al. 2010). All measurements are executed using a 30 W low-power Mo tube, 50 kV, 600 µA Mo tube, and with an acquisition time of 15 s (live time) to minimize the risk of damage (Fig. 1, 2).
Fig. 1: XRF spectrometer probe above a manuscript fragment
Fig. 2: Typical element profile of a XRF linescan
The Dino Lite digital stereomicroscope (Fig. 3) features built-in LED illumination at 395 nm and 940 nm and a customized external white light source. During use, the microscope is fastened to a small tripod or mounted on a Plexiglas ring holder that incorporates a white light source.
Fig. 3: Dino Lite digital stereomicroscope
Fig. 4: Details of one fragment (T-S 16.124) observed with the Dino microscope (x20). On the left, when illuminated with NIR (Near-Infrared, 940 nm) light, the ink fades, indicating iron-gall ink. On the right, the image under NIR light does not change. It is carbon ink.
On example of these studies is the manuscript T-S 16.124 (Cambridge University Library, Fig. 5) whom belongs to the third corpus. It is a deed, written in Hebrew, dated from 1328 (= 1017 CE) and witnessed by a very high number of people (6) comparing to the standard of similar documents (between 2 and 3), from at least two different Jewish communities in Fustat (trans congregational). The verso is written in Arabic (Bareket 1999).
Fig. 5: Manuscript T-S 16.124 (Cambridge University Library)
To compare the inks, we used the fingerprint model. This method relies on the determination of characteristic elemental compositions and represents the amount of a minor constituent relative to the main component, iron in iron gall ink (Malzer et al. 2004, Hahn et al. 2004, Rabin et al 2014). However, a calculation of a fingerprint based on XRF measurements is not possible in the case of carbon ink since carbon, its main component, cannot be detected with this technique.
Fig. 6: Ink fingerprint T-S 16-124 (recto) normalized to iron (Fe)
Conclusion
We show that using reflectography and XRF analysis it is possible to sort the inks according to their type. In the case of the iron-gall inks, use of the ink fingerprint, i.e. amount of the vitriol components normalized to iron we can make direct comparisons of the ink composition.
We would like also to stress that though the methods of material analysis listed above have been successfully employed in the field of cultural heritage and conservation including ancient and medieval manuscripts they have not yet been used to study fragments from the Cairo Genizah. Therefore, we believe that this research project is a pioneering study that will provide new insights into the history of Hebrew writing materials, their production techniques and materials and, thus, contribute new data to the field of Hebrew paleography.