Part 14 (1/2)
Der Getreue Schreibe Master), by Johann Friedr Vicum, published in Dresden
From 1602 to 1709 many ”Indian” ink specimens were extant and are still of the different schools of penmanshi+p The productions of Phrysius, Materot and Barbedor illustrating the French style, Vignon, Sellery and others, for the Italian hand, and Overbique and So, with a few more, complete the list
CHAPTER XII
STUDY OF INK
LACK OF INTEREST AS TO THE COMPOSITION OF INK DURING PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY--THE CONDITIONS WHICH THEN PREVAILED NEARLY THE SAME AS THE PRESENT TIME--CHEMISTRY OF INK NOT UNDERSTOOD-- THIS LACK OF INFORMATION NOT CONFINED TO ANY PARTICULAR COUNTRY--LEWIS, IN 1765, BEGINS A SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION ON THE SUBJECT OF INKS --THE RESULTS AND HIS CONCLUSIONS PUBLISHED IN 1797--THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND IN 1787 RECEIVES COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE INFERIORITY OF INKS --ITS SECRETARY READS A PAPER THE SAME YEAR--THE PAPER CITED IN FULL--DR BOSTOCK IN 1830 COMMUNICATES TO THE SOCIETY OF ARTS WHAT HE ESTIMATES TO BE THE CAUSES OF IMPERFECTIONS IN INK-- ACTION OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES-- COMPLICATIONS SURROUNDING THE MANUFACTURE OF INK ONLY THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO
THE increasing demands for ink, and the lack of interest as to its cohteenth century, if viewed in the saeneral rades of ink which possessed no very lasting qualities The chemistry of Inks was not fully understood, indeed we find Professer Turner of the College of Edinburgh declaring in 1827:
”Gallic acid was discovered by Scheele in 1786, and exists ready forall-nuts It is always associated with tannin, a substance to which it is allied in a uished froelatine With a salt of iron it forms a dark blue coloured compound, which is the basis of ink The finest colour is procured when the peroxide and protoxide of iron are allic acid froeneral lack of infor ink chemistry or its time-phenomena was not confined to any particular country, and it does not appear that any general or specific attention was scientifically directed to it until 1765, when Willialish cheate the subject
His experimentations covered a period of many years and their results and his theories as to the phenomena of inks were published in 1797 The most valuable of his conclusions were that an excess of iron salt in the ink is detri brown on exposure) and also that acetic acid in the reater body and blackness than sulphuric acid does (a circumstance due to the sallo-tannate) Many of his other observations were later shown to have been erroneous Dr Leas the first to advocate log- wood as a tinctorial agent in connection with iron and gall compositions
Ribaucourt, a French ink alls is quite as injurious to the per the coland, affected by complaints from all quarters relative to the inferiority of inks as coht the subject to the attention of many of its den, M D, read a paper before the society, June 28, 1787, which was published in the ”Philosophical Transactions”
and widely circulated It is so interesting that copious extracts are given:
”In a conversation soo with my friend Thoibility of ancient MSS a question arose, whether the inks in use eight or ten centuries ago, which are often found to have preserved their colour remarkably well, were made of different materials from those employed in later times, of which many are already become so pale as scarcely to be read
With a view to the decision of this question, Mr
Astle obligingly furnished me with several MSS, on parchment and vellum, from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries inclusively, some of which were still black, and others of different shades of colour, from a deep yellowish brown to a very pale yellow, in some parts so faint as to be scarcely visible On all of these I ents which appeared to me best adapted to the purpose, naisticated, the alls
”It would be tedious and superfluous to enter into a detail of the particular experireed in the general result, to shew that the ink employed anciently, as far as the above-mentioned MSS
extended, was of the same nature as the present; for the letters turned of a reddish or yelloith alkalis, becath obliterated, with the dilute mineral acids, and the drop of acid liquor which had extracted a letter, changed to a deep blue or green on the addition of a drop of phlogisticated alkali; e with the infusion of galls, in some cases redients was iron, which there is no reason to doubt was joined with the vitriolic acid; and the colour of the more perfect MSS which in soether with the restitution of that colour, in those which had lost it, by the infusion of galls, sufficiently proved that another of the ingredients was a stringent alls No trace of a black pigment of any sort was discovered, the drop of acid which had co of an uniforineous color, without an ato in it
”As to the durability of the more ancient inks, it seemed, from what occurred to me in these experiments, to depend very much on a better preparation of thewas made, na those which had sunk into it deepest Soree of effervescence was commonly to be perceived when the acids came into contact with the surface of these old vellums I was led, however, to suspect, that the e of colour, produced by the phlogisticated alkali in the acid laid upon theht depend in part upon the length of tium was used in them, or possible they ashed over with soloss
”One of the specimens sent me by Mr Astle, of the fifteenth century, and the letters were those of an engrossing hand, angular, without any FINE strokes, broad and very black On this none of the above-ents produced any considerable effect; most of the the surface; and the acids, after having been rubbed strongly on the letters, did not strike any deeper tinge with the phlogisticated alkali Nothing had a sensible effect toward obliterating these letters but what took off part of the surface of the vellum, when small rolls, as of a dirty matter, were to be perceived It is therefore unquestionable, that no iron was used in this ink; and from its resistance to the chemical solvents, as well as a certain clotted appearance in the letters when exaloss, I have little doubt but they were formed with a composition of a black, sooty or carbonaceous powder and oil, probably so like our present printer's ink, and am not without suspicion that they were actually printed (a subsequent exaer portion of this supposed MSS has shown that it is really a part of a very ancient printed book)
”Whilst I was considering of the experiments to be made, in order to ascertain the composition of ancient inks, it occurred to ibility to decayed writingcalx of iron, because, as the quantity of precipitate formed by these two substances veryman was of opinion that the blue precipitate contains only between a fifth and a sixth part of its weight of iron, and though subsequent experiments tend to show that, in soreater, yet upon the whole it is certainly true, that if the iron left by the stroke of a pen were joined to the colouring isticated alkali, the quantity of Prussian blue thence resulting would be inally contained in the ink deposited by the pen, though perhaps the body of colourthe idea to the test, I isticated alkali was rubbed upon the bare writing in different quantities, but in general with little effect In a few instances, however, it gave a bluish tinge to the letters, and increased their intensity, probably where so of an acid nature had contributed to the diisticated alkali forms its blue precipitate with iron the metal is first usually dissolved in an acid, I was next induced to try the effect of adding a dilutebesides the alkali This answered fully tovery speedily to a deep blue colour, of great beauty and intensity
”It seeth of colour obtained, whether the writing be first wetted with the acid, and then the phlogisticated alkali be touched upon it, or whether the process be inverted, beginning with the alkali; but on another account I think the latter way preferable For the principal inconvenience which occurs in the proposedMSS is, that the colour frequently spreads, and so ibility; now this appears to happen in a less degree when the alkali is put on first, and the dilute acid is added upon it
”The method I have hitherto found to answer best has been to spread the alkali thin with a feather or a bit of stick cut to a blunt point, though the alkali has occasioned no sensible change of colour, yet the moment that the acid comes upon it, every trace of a letter turns at once to a fine blue, which soon acquires its full intensity, and is beyond coinal trace had been If now the corner of a bit of blotting paper be carefully and dexterously applied near the letters, in order to suck up the superfluous liquor, the staining of the parchreat measure avoided: for it is this superfluous liquor which absorbing part of the colouring matter from the letters becomes a dye to whatever it touches
Carepaper in contact with the letters, because the colouring matter is soft whilst wet, and may easily be rubbed off The acid I have chiefly employed has been the marine; but both the vitriolic and nitrous succeed very well They should undoubtedly be so far diluted as not to be in danger of corroding the parchth does not seem to be a matter of much nicety
”The s, is by wetting thealls in white wine”
(See a complicated process for the preparation of such a liquor in Caneparius De Atramentis, A D