Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique

by J. H. Middleton

In order to keep the white pigments perfectly pure, some illuminators used to keep them under water, so that no dust could reach them.

Black inks. Two inks of quite different kinds were used for the ordinary text of mediaeval manuscripts.

Carbon ink.

Carbon ink.One of these was a pure carbon-black (modern Indian or Chinese ink); this has been described under the classical name atramentum librarium[^[280]]; see above, page [27]. The great advantage of this carbon ink is that it never fades; it is not a dye or stain, but it consists of very minute particles of carbon which rest on the surface of the vellum.

Iron ink.

Iron ink.The other variety was like modern black writing ink, only of very superior quality. This acts as a dye, staining the vellum a little below the surface. Unfortunately it is liable to fade, though when kept from the light (as in most manuscripts) it has stood the test of time very well.

Sometimes the mediaeval illuminators distinguished these two kinds of black ink, calling the first atramentum and the second encaustum; but frequently the names are used indifferently for either: see Theophilus, I. 40. The encaustum was made by boiling oak-bark or gall-nuts, which are rich in tannin, in acid wine with some iron filings or vitriol (sulphate of iron). The combination of the iron and the tannin gives the inky black[^[281]]. Both these black inks were used with gum Arabic.

Beauty of the plain text.

Beauty of the plain text.A great part of the beauty of mediaeval manuscripts is quite unconnected with their illumination. The plain portion of the text, from the exquisite forms of its letters and the beautiful glossy black of the ink on the creamy ivory-like vellum page, lighted up here and there by the crisp touch of the rubricator's red, is a thing of extraordinary beauty and charm. This perfection of technique in the writing and beauty of the letters lasted considerably longer than did the illuminator's art. Hence in some of the manuscripts of the period of decadence, executed during the fifteenth century, the plain black and red text is very superior in style to the painted ornament; and one cannot, in some cases, help regretting that the manuscript has not escaped the disfigurement of a coarse or gaudy scheme of illumination.

Red inks were of three chief kinds, namely the vermilion, red lead, and rubrica or red ochre, which have been already mentioned.