Plaster made of dogges turde & mans ordure and the gall of a bull is very good.
Make a gargarisene wyth the decoction of dryed Fygges, and dogges turde it doth quickely open ye apostume.
I haue harde many expert men saye yt Uerue~ stampt and layd to whote as a plaster, hath healed oftentimes the squinanci.
Wolues dounge bound to the thighes, or to ye bone aboue ye preuie membres taketh the grefe away in|continent.
Make
a pouder of wolues turde dogges berde, coluer dounge & quik lyme
& mengle with molten, pitche, & suete meltid, lay it to whote,
it is very good.
Make a bath wherin put all the sundry tordes
as may be found, the same resoluith wyndines and sl[...]my humors thys
haue I prouyd.
Item take a hote shepes turde wt got[...]s
[...]alowe stampt wel, & put ther on pitche all to beaten in
fyne pou|der and well menglid to gether ap|ply it warme as a cerote, it
hath wt out doubt wonderfull efficacy.
The dounge of a Wolf,
if it be newly made, and so applyd there, is nothing better then it for
to heale ye Colycke, yf it be stale dissolue it in old oyle.
Coluer dounge, dogges turdes, Gotes dounge wyth the ioyce of walworte and common oyle, is muche worthe.
Mouse turdes anoyntyd vpon the brestes wyth water losyth the hardnes payne and swellyng therof.
Rattes turdes stampt and mingelyd wyth olde grese losyth all swellynges of a cold cause.
Take
the ioyce of a cowe turde (in a woman) and of an oxe (in a man) washe
the fistula with the ioice and apply the residewe therto plasteryd, it
helpeth quicklye.
An egles turde anoyntyd or bound on the wartes, taketh them away.
Gose
turdes plasterid vpon the grefe, drawith out y^[...] stickes and Iron
that be fastenid in the fleshe. Of the same operacion is the ioyce of
Dytanye myngled wyth Gose dounge.
Author: John XXI, Pope, d. 1277.
Title:
The treasury of healthe conteynyng many profitable medycines gathered
out of Hypocrates, Galen and Auycen, by one Petrus Hyspanus [and]
translated into Englysh by Humfre Lloyde who hath added therunto the
causes and sygnes of euery dysease, wyth the Aphorismes of Hypocrates,
and Iacobus de Partybus redacted to a certayne order according to the
membres of mans body, and a compendiouse table conteynyng the purginge
and confortatyue medycynes, wyth the exposicyo[n] of certayne names
[and] weyghtes in this boke contayned wyth an epystle of Diocles vnto
kyng Antigonus.
Date: 1553
¶To heale an excrescens or growyng vp of the fleshe, within the yarde of a man, albeit it were rooted in of a long tyme.TAke the lies of Honie distilled, or, if you can not haue soche, take Honie, and burne it in a pot: and put the blacke leefe that shal remain in the bottome, into an other pot, or into an iron pan, & set it to burne or calcine in a vernishers fournesse, or soche other in a great fire, by the space of .iij. or .iiij. daies, wherof ye shal haue a substaunce as yelowe as gold, the whiche will be excellent, to laie vpon all manner of woundes: for it eateth awaie the euill fleshe, mondifieth, and healeth the good, without pain or grief, whiche maketh to be moche better for all woundes, then is the Precipitatum, that the Sy|rurgens comonly vse. Take then of this pouder an vnce, of Dogges turdes .ij. vnces, leese of wine halfe a dragme, whiche is the halfe of theight part of an vnce, fine suger[...] a dragme, roche Alume burned a dragme, of Nill a dragme let all these thynges bee well beaten to pouder, and sifted through a fine seeue & then take grene leaues of an Oliue tree, and beate them in a morter of stone, moisting them a litle with white wine, the whiche being well stamped, ye must strain in a presse, or betwene .ij. tra~chours, for to get out the Iuice, and putte to it as moche Plantaine Iuice: then set it to the fire in a litle potte, and afterward put in it by litle and litle the saied pouder, minglyng altogether continually: And laste of all ye muste adde vnto it, a litle grene waxe, and a verie litle Honie rosat, that it maie be a liquide ointemente and so keepe it. This ointemente is very precious, to consume all maner of ercrescence, or growyng vp of fleshe, in any tender place of the body, as in the secrete members, or in the nose, whereunto a man dare not applicque any strong or smartyng thyng. Now when ye muste vse it for the carnosite, within a mannes yarde, you shall take firste of all a Squirte, and fill it with white wine, wherein drie Roses, and Plantaine leaues haue been sodden and boiled, wherewith also ye shall mix a litle womans milke, or the milke of a Gote: then washe well the mannes yarde within, with this Squirte: After this take a litle waxe candell, somwhat long, and of soche greatnesse, as it maie enter into his yarde, at the poincte whereof ye shall put a litle of the saied ointemente, war|ming it a litle, and thrust it as farre into his yarde as you can, vntil you feele the Carnosite, and leaue the said oint|mente within the yarde a litle while: then take it out again, and doe thus mornyng and euenyng, liyng a bedde his bealie vpward, when ye shall put in the candell with the ointement, and you shall see a meruellous effecte: for it shall heale hym throughly, in fewe daies, without any daunger.
Author: Ruscelli, Girolamo, d. ca. 1565.
Title: The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount Containyng excellent remedies against diuers diseases, woundes, and other accidents, with the manner to make distillations, parfumes, confitures, diynges, colours, fusions and meltynges. ... Translated out of Frenche into Englishe, by Wyllyam Warde.
Date: 1558
To make hore beares blacke.
TAke fiue flagons full of raine water, and seeth it with strong Ashes, & put into it some Litarge of Gold the quantite of sixe vnces, with a handfull of a blacke figge tree leaues, and as much of sage, and let it seeth vntil it be diminished of a quarter, and than it is done and made, washe your heade with this composition twise a weeke, and whan your head is drie againe, take the iuice of sage, and put into it an vnce of tartre or leese of redde wine, and half an vnce of the litarge of gold, and haue ready a combe of leade whiche you shall anoint with the saide iuice and so kembe your head and your bearde well with it, and they will become incontinent blacke, vsing the saide combe with the said iuice and pouder, whiche thinge hath ben proued. For the like effect you shall take oile of tartre, and heate it, & whan you haue washed your head and dried it againe, you shall anoint your combe with the saide oile, and so kembe your heade in the Sunne a good while, or els anoint your selfe with a sponge for to make your heares black, and do it twise or thrise a day, & in a weke you shall haue your heares as blacke as euer they were, and the like maie you do to your beard, and if you will haue it sauour swetely vse at the ende some oile of Bengewine for to anoint the co~be withal, for it helpeth likewise to the blacking of the heares, and is of good sauour. This is an excellent secret. For the like also, take white Hony, and distill it in a Limbeck of glasse, with a sharpe fire, and keepe that licour that commeth of it, and washe your head with it, and what it is drie againe, anoint your self with it & the heare will be blacke. Take also good Saffran, & incorporate it well with yolkes of Egges [...]osted, and a little Honny, and you shall make of it, as it were a maner of ointment, with the which you shal anoint your head or berd morning and euening, and continuyng so a moneth at the least in washing your selfe often, the heares will [...] of the colour of Gold: but first anoint the ko~be with oile of bitter Almondes, and do that while ye are in the sunne, and the heares will be bright and faire as Gold. Take also the roote of succorie, and seeth it with lie, and in continuyng of it, it will make your heares white, and drie your selfe in the Sunne, and washe your selfe twise a weeke, and boile also in the lie some commune lickerous, and whan your heare is drie againe, parfume theim with quicke brimstone, and they will become of the colour of Gold. To make also hore heares blacke, take black Sope, and quicke lime, and some litarge of Golde, and make thereof as it were an ointment, and rubbe your heares with it, and continue so a while according as you shall see neede, and whan they be become blacke, leaue theim so, and if they returne to be white againe, doe as before. Also for to make them Redde, beyng hore and white, take three handfuls of Walnutte leaues, and a handfull of the pilles of Pome|granades, and distill them in a limbeck of glasse: then washe onely your white heares and not your face, for you should than make it blacke, and doyng thus the space of fiuetene daies, it will continue a moneth, and you shall haue your heare Redde. Take also grounde wormes burned, and make thereof pouder, also the leaues of a blacke Figge tree, and make thereof a fine pouder, and temper it with oile of almondes, and they will be Blacke.
Now to make them growe a pase and quickly, take a certaine qua~tite of Hennes egges, and seeth them whole in water: than take out the yelkes, and frie the~ in a friyng pan without any other thing, vntill there come furthe of theim some humidite and moisture: then take them of and putte them in a little bagge, and presse them in a presse, and get out all the substance that maye come out of them: then burne an oxe horne, and make thereof pouder, and incorporate it with the said licour, and put to it also goates turdes [...]urned: and so anoint the [...]are place with the saide co~|position diuers times, and the heares will growe in|continent after.
Author: Ruscelli, Girolamo, d. ca. 1565.
Title: The seconde part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont by hym collected out of diuers
excellent authours, and newly translated out of Frenche into Englishe, with a generall table, of all the
matters conteined in the saied boke. By William Warde.
Date: 1560
To remedie the Quinsey.
TAke out the meate of an Orenge, and fill it with Hennes dounge, then put therevnto oyle of Roses and a little Saffron, and boyle it vpon a fyre of coales, and when you haue taken it from the fyre, bray it and make thereof a playster, and binde it vnder the throte, hauing first well purged the bodye.
To heale Wartes or harde knobbes.
TAke of the ashes made of the wood of a Wyllowe, and mixe it with the sower pulpe of a Ceder apple, and make thereof a playster, and laye it vppon them and they will bée healed. It helpeth lykewise to annoynt them with the bloud or dounge of a Ratte dissolued in vineger, or else with water of the wood of Vines, that commeth of them when they are burnt in the fyre: or else rub them oftentimes with the leaues of Porcelane.
To stop the bleeding of wounds.
TAke of the doung of Pecockes, and dissolue it with water of Sage distilled when it hath flowers, putting therevnto a little Muske, and dipping a little Bombace in the said mixture, binde it vpon the wounde.
Against the swellings of Percussions.
TAke of the gawle of an Ewe, and being medled with the milke of a woman, laye it vpon the sore: or else take the doung of a Swine, and drie it betwene two dishes in an Ouen, then bray it, and mixe it with Oyle, and it will worke the effect beyng applyed vnto the sore.
Author: Ruscelli, Girolamo, d. ca. 1565.
Title: A verye excellent and profitable booke conteining sixe hundred foure score and odde experienced medicines apperteyning unto phisick and surgerie, long tyme practysed of the expert and Reuerend Mayster Alexis, which he termeth the fourth and finall booke of his secretes ... Translated out of Italian into Englishe by Richard Androse.
Date: 1569
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Pitch Glue
Pitch glue is mentioned in the 12th century Mappae Clavicula; a little key to Medieval Techniques as an ingredient and has one recipe for a stone glue 122-B which includes pitch.
It is also mentioned in On Divers Arts by Theophilus (ca. 1120 AD):
Chapter 59. The Composition Called Chaser's Pitch
Grind a piece of brick or tile very small and melt some pitch in an earthenware dish and add a little wax. When these are both melted, mix in the powdered tile and stir it vigorously and pour it out into water. When it begins to grow cold, dip both your hands into the water and knead it for a long time until you can stretch the composition and draw it out like a skin. Immediately melt this composition and fill the cruet to the top.
According to MedievalArtisan.info pitch [glue] is used as a firm, grasping, yet flexible material to hold and support a metal sheet. It can hold the sheet in place and provide a strong surface behind the sheet which gives under pressure - but not too much, or too quickly - for further decoration techniques like Chasing and Repoussé.
http://www.medievalartisan.info/art/Crafts/Metal/MakePitch.aspx
Following are three recipes from modern sources, each with their own interpretations and preferences. Pine pitch glue has been used since antiquity for a variety of gluing chores, including to help attach projectile points and knife blades to a variety of shafts/handles. Especially when combined with sinew, pine pitch glued points, more often than not, break before detaching. But, when a pine pitch glued object is left in really hot sun, it will soften and stick to whatever it touches.
Tree Resin of Pitch Glue
Use tree Resin (sometimes referred to as pitch) from any variety of coniferous species. The clear or yellow resin seeps from anywhere the tree has been injured and often looks like the wood itself. Without binding agents the tree resin would be too brittle, you can use Charcoal, Beeswax, Dry shredded plant matter (typically in the form of animal droppings). A ratio of 2 parts resin to 1 part charcoal/Beeswax/animal droppings works well. Grind the charcoal and animal droppings to a powder - the finer the better so it is worth extra time and effort in the process. In a suitable container, heat the tree resin (be careful while melting because it is flammable) until it become more liquid. Stir the other ingredients until the glue becomes a thick, black, tar-like substance that is very sticky.
The glue mixture will harden very quickly upon removal from the heat source, but will become pliable again as heat is applied. Therefore it is possible to make in advance and store until required for use.
From http://www.ancientcraft.co.uk/Projects/Projects.html
How to make pine pitch glue
-Here’s how to use Pine resin in a homemade glue recipe.
-Collect the resin from a pine tree. Here’s a method to tap a pine tree to obtain the sap from a tree.
-Melt the resin. If it ignites, blow out the flame and move the container so the heat is lessened. Try to not overheat the resin as the compounds are destroyed the longer they are subjected to heat.
-Add 1 part hardwood charcoal powder. This helps temper the resin and reduces its stickiness.
-Add 1 part filler material. This can be ground plant material (crushed to a fine powder) or rabbit or deer scat/droppings (dried and ground up). In a pinch, you may also substitute sawdust, bone dust, or animal hair. The filler material helps strengthen the glue compound.
-If you wish to make the resultant glue more flexible, so it can be easily worked, add one part fat, tallow, or beeswax to the mixture.
-Mix thoroughly.
-Apply using a stick.
After the glue hardens, it will resembled hardened glass (unless you chose to add beeswax or fat in which case it will be more elastic).
Dried pine pitch glue can be reheated to convert it back to its liquid state. Dip a stick into the mixture and remove, allowing the glob of glue to harden on the stick. Re-dip the stick to add additional layers of glue (as it cools, you may wish to roll it between your hands to compress and shape it). The finished lolly of pine pitch glue can then be carried with you and reheated when needed.
From http://wildernessarena.com/skills/general-repair/how-to-make-pine-pitch-glue
To Make Pine Pitch Glue
Needed: Pine/Fir pitch (sap), Charcoal – finely ground, Plant fibers – coarsely ground (manure).
1. Once you collect enough pine pitch you’ll need to heat it to remove the ‘volatiles’ (turpentine). You must heat the pine pitch to the point where the turpentine evaporates away. Some say to bring the pitch to a low boil for a few minutes and others recommend just a low simmer for 5-6 minutes. Both work but the boiling is faster. Be sure and use a container large enough that it won't boil over or spill.
2. I filter the hot, liquid pitch through a layer of two of cheese cloth. Pine pitch, especially if you find large deposits of old pitch, usually contains bugs, moss, twigs and other debris. These can make the glue inferior and much less attractive when you apply it to an arrow or knife.
3. Make some charcoal and grind it into a fine powder. If you can't make your own charcoal make sure you get chunk charcoal, not the briquettes. Those almost always contain petroleum products and can ruin your glue.
4. Take the cool charcoal out and grind it into as fine a powder as you can. I have a great method - I put two dozen 2 oz lead balls in my tumbler with real small chunks of charcoal and 20 minutes later I have charcoal as fine as can be!
5. I mix the charcoal into the hot liquid pitch in about a 50/50 ratio or until it starts to feel like soft clay. Some people recommend adding some plant fiber - usually very dry manure (such as elk droppings), coarsely ground between the hands but not finely ground. I do this as well as it seems to give the glue a little more strength. But I add only about 10%- 20% manure to the pitch/charcoal mixture. You have to mix all three ingredients together at the same time while the pitch is still liquid. It will start to cool and harden fairly quickly.
6. Most people I know make 'dubbing/daubing' sticks. Take a pencil size stick and coat it with the finished pine pitch glue by rolling one end of the stick around in the glue until you have a glob about the size of a walnut on the stick. You can then use the daubing stick like a stick of ferrule cement, just heat and apply.
7. You can also store just the clarified pitch by pouring into a small can such as a 6 oz tuna can. To make storing even easier, once the pitch hardens I cut/peel away the can and place the pitch in a plastic Ziploc baggie. Be sure and store in a cool place.
Last tips - for appearances sake, I always mask off the areas I don't want to get glue on with tape. And I always have some turpentine on hand for clean-up. Turpentine works the best.
If you do this right, the glue, when applied, will harden like JB-Weld and work great. If you make a mistake you can re-heat the glue and start over. Note - do not leave a pine pitch glued object in really hot sun, it will soften and stick to whatever it touches.
From http://www.pugetsoundknappers.com/how_to/pine_pitch_glue.html
It is also mentioned in On Divers Arts by Theophilus (ca. 1120 AD):
Chapter 59. The Composition Called Chaser's Pitch
Grind a piece of brick or tile very small and melt some pitch in an earthenware dish and add a little wax. When these are both melted, mix in the powdered tile and stir it vigorously and pour it out into water. When it begins to grow cold, dip both your hands into the water and knead it for a long time until you can stretch the composition and draw it out like a skin. Immediately melt this composition and fill the cruet to the top.
According to MedievalArtisan.info pitch [glue] is used as a firm, grasping, yet flexible material to hold and support a metal sheet. It can hold the sheet in place and provide a strong surface behind the sheet which gives under pressure - but not too much, or too quickly - for further decoration techniques like Chasing and Repoussé.
http://www.medievalartisan.info/art/Crafts/Metal/MakePitch.aspx
Following are three recipes from modern sources, each with their own interpretations and preferences. Pine pitch glue has been used since antiquity for a variety of gluing chores, including to help attach projectile points and knife blades to a variety of shafts/handles. Especially when combined with sinew, pine pitch glued points, more often than not, break before detaching. But, when a pine pitch glued object is left in really hot sun, it will soften and stick to whatever it touches.
Tree Resin of Pitch Glue
Use tree Resin (sometimes referred to as pitch) from any variety of coniferous species. The clear or yellow resin seeps from anywhere the tree has been injured and often looks like the wood itself. Without binding agents the tree resin would be too brittle, you can use Charcoal, Beeswax, Dry shredded plant matter (typically in the form of animal droppings). A ratio of 2 parts resin to 1 part charcoal/Beeswax/animal droppings works well. Grind the charcoal and animal droppings to a powder - the finer the better so it is worth extra time and effort in the process. In a suitable container, heat the tree resin (be careful while melting because it is flammable) until it become more liquid. Stir the other ingredients until the glue becomes a thick, black, tar-like substance that is very sticky.
The glue mixture will harden very quickly upon removal from the heat source, but will become pliable again as heat is applied. Therefore it is possible to make in advance and store until required for use.
From http://www.ancientcraft.co.uk/Projects/Projects.html
How to make pine pitch glue
-Here’s how to use Pine resin in a homemade glue recipe.
-Collect the resin from a pine tree. Here’s a method to tap a pine tree to obtain the sap from a tree.
-Melt the resin. If it ignites, blow out the flame and move the container so the heat is lessened. Try to not overheat the resin as the compounds are destroyed the longer they are subjected to heat.
-Add 1 part hardwood charcoal powder. This helps temper the resin and reduces its stickiness.
-Add 1 part filler material. This can be ground plant material (crushed to a fine powder) or rabbit or deer scat/droppings (dried and ground up). In a pinch, you may also substitute sawdust, bone dust, or animal hair. The filler material helps strengthen the glue compound.
-If you wish to make the resultant glue more flexible, so it can be easily worked, add one part fat, tallow, or beeswax to the mixture.
-Mix thoroughly.
-Apply using a stick.
After the glue hardens, it will resembled hardened glass (unless you chose to add beeswax or fat in which case it will be more elastic).
Dried pine pitch glue can be reheated to convert it back to its liquid state. Dip a stick into the mixture and remove, allowing the glob of glue to harden on the stick. Re-dip the stick to add additional layers of glue (as it cools, you may wish to roll it between your hands to compress and shape it). The finished lolly of pine pitch glue can then be carried with you and reheated when needed.
From http://wildernessarena.com/skills/general-repair/how-to-make-pine-pitch-glue
To Make Pine Pitch Glue
Needed: Pine/Fir pitch (sap), Charcoal – finely ground, Plant fibers – coarsely ground (manure).
1. Once you collect enough pine pitch you’ll need to heat it to remove the ‘volatiles’ (turpentine). You must heat the pine pitch to the point where the turpentine evaporates away. Some say to bring the pitch to a low boil for a few minutes and others recommend just a low simmer for 5-6 minutes. Both work but the boiling is faster. Be sure and use a container large enough that it won't boil over or spill.
2. I filter the hot, liquid pitch through a layer of two of cheese cloth. Pine pitch, especially if you find large deposits of old pitch, usually contains bugs, moss, twigs and other debris. These can make the glue inferior and much less attractive when you apply it to an arrow or knife.
3. Make some charcoal and grind it into a fine powder. If you can't make your own charcoal make sure you get chunk charcoal, not the briquettes. Those almost always contain petroleum products and can ruin your glue.
4. Take the cool charcoal out and grind it into as fine a powder as you can. I have a great method - I put two dozen 2 oz lead balls in my tumbler with real small chunks of charcoal and 20 minutes later I have charcoal as fine as can be!
5. I mix the charcoal into the hot liquid pitch in about a 50/50 ratio or until it starts to feel like soft clay. Some people recommend adding some plant fiber - usually very dry manure (such as elk droppings), coarsely ground between the hands but not finely ground. I do this as well as it seems to give the glue a little more strength. But I add only about 10%- 20% manure to the pitch/charcoal mixture. You have to mix all three ingredients together at the same time while the pitch is still liquid. It will start to cool and harden fairly quickly.
6. Most people I know make 'dubbing/daubing' sticks. Take a pencil size stick and coat it with the finished pine pitch glue by rolling one end of the stick around in the glue until you have a glob about the size of a walnut on the stick. You can then use the daubing stick like a stick of ferrule cement, just heat and apply.
7. You can also store just the clarified pitch by pouring into a small can such as a 6 oz tuna can. To make storing even easier, once the pitch hardens I cut/peel away the can and place the pitch in a plastic Ziploc baggie. Be sure and store in a cool place.
Last tips - for appearances sake, I always mask off the areas I don't want to get glue on with tape. And I always have some turpentine on hand for clean-up. Turpentine works the best.
If you do this right, the glue, when applied, will harden like JB-Weld and work great. If you make a mistake you can re-heat the glue and start over. Note - do not leave a pine pitch glued object in really hot sun, it will soften and stick to whatever it touches.
From http://www.pugetsoundknappers.com/how_to/pine_pitch_glue.html
How animal glue is made...
In the "Natural History" of Pliny the Elder, book 11 chapter 94, Pliny says that "From the hides of oxen, and that of the bull more especially, glue is extracted by boiling." The entirety of book 16 chapter 83 is on "Woods united with glue."
From http://swingleydev.com/ot/get/237392/thread/
XVIII. Glue made from Hide and Hartshorn
When this has been carefully dried, take some cuttings of the same hide similarly dried and cut them up in small pieces. Take some hartshorn and, with a smith’s hammer, break it up into small pieces on an anvil. Half fill a new pot with them and fill it up with water. Then heat until a third part of the water has evaporated, but taking care not to let it boil. You test it in this way: moisten your fingers in this water, and if, when they are cool, they stick together, the glue is good; but if not, heat it until they do stick together. Then pour this glue into a clean vessel, and again fill the pot with water and heat as before. Do this four times.
Oil of hartshorn is a crude animal oil obtained from the destructive distillation of the deers' bones or horns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartshorn
Theophilus (c.1122) "On Divers Arts" Translated from Latin by C.R. Dodwell to The Various Arts; published by Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd. in 1961.
CHAPTER CVIIII HOW GOAT GLUE IS MADE, AND HOW IT IS TEMPERED; AND HOW MANY PURPOSES IT WILL SERVE.
And there is a glue which is known as leaf glue; this is made of clippings of a goat’s muzzles, feet, sinews, and many clippings of skins. This glue is made in March or January, during those strong frosts or winds; and it is boiled with clear water until it is reduced to less than half. Then put it into certain flat dishes, like jelly molds or basins, straining it thoroughly, Let is tand overnight. Then, in the morning, cut it with a knife into slices like bread; put it on a mat to dry in the wind, out of the sunlight; and an ideal glue will result. This glue is used by painters, by saddlers, and by ever so many masters, as I shall show you later on. And it is good glue for wood, and for many things. […]
Cennini, Cennino d’Andrea (lived c. 1360–1427) "Il Libro Dell’Arte" The Craftsman’s Handbook, translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. 1933 Dover Publications, NY (no publishing date, but after 1960).
186. How to make glue from the skin of an ox or a cote.
—Take the skin of an ox or a cow, as thick as you can find it, which has already been tanned for shoes, and put it in a jar and pour water upon it, and make it boil over the fire from daybreak on a summer's day until nearly the third hour of the day, pouring water into it when necessary, or, when it is much diminished, pour off the water, which has boiled so long, and pour in clean water, and make it boil again until the sixth hour. Then pour off this water, which will be nearly all evaporated, and again pour clean water into the jar over the same leather, and do not renew it more than once or twice more. And take great care not to let it boil over, and then, having boiled it down to one-third, pour it into a vase, and leave it to cool all that day and night. In the morning of the next day if it is coagulated in the vase, put your finger upon it. If any part of it remains sticking to your finger, you may know that it is not good, and may throw it away as refuse. Afterwards fill up the jar with water as before, in order to boil it with the leather ; and you must not fill it up any more, but take all possible care not to let it boil over. You will know when it is good by (after you have boiled it sufficiently and let it cool) putting your finger upon it as before, to see whether it is hard ; and the harder you find it, the better you may know it to be.
Afterwards putting a small portion of it into an earthen vase, set it on the coals and make it rather warm. Then, removing the vase from the fire, keep it at a moderate heat over a slow fire made of a few pieces of charcoal, lest it should be con S. AUDEMAR DE COLORIBUS FACIENDIS. 149 grossiores vero quae per pannum transpire non poterunt iterum in ipso mortario mitte et molle sicut antea feceras. Et 3emper minutiorem partem per pannum transpire facias sicut dictum est et repone cum similibus minutiis et sic postquam in mundissi- mum pulverem redegeris stannum protrahe super pergamenum et super pannum flores et imagines et quodcumque opus volu- cris. Et in ipso opera per loca que de aurare vel argenteare voles, pones v
Mrs Merriefield (1849) ORIGINAL TREATISES, DATING FROM THE XIIth TO XVIIIth CENTURIES in the ARTS OF PAINTING William Clowes & Sons. London
Free download at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=2xgGAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=ORIGINAL+TREATISES,+DATING+FROM+THE+XIIth+TO+XVIIIth+CENTURIES+in+the+ARTS+OF+PAINTING&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjy28OGucvPAhVCKCYKHTqKDGAQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=ORIGINAL%20TREATISES%2C%20DATING%20FROM%20THE%20XIIth%20TO%20XVIIIth%20CENTURIES%20in%20the%20ARTS%20OF%20PAINTING&f=false
A neat article on period glue as it pertains to modern wood working:
http://www.oldbrownglue.com/images/articles/Why_not_period_glue.pdf
A class handout with lots of background information on different period glues :
http://www.rocks4brains.com/glue.pdf
From http://swingleydev.com/ot/get/237392/thread/
XVIII. Glue made from Hide and Hartshorn
When this has been carefully dried, take some cuttings of the same hide similarly dried and cut them up in small pieces. Take some hartshorn and, with a smith’s hammer, break it up into small pieces on an anvil. Half fill a new pot with them and fill it up with water. Then heat until a third part of the water has evaporated, but taking care not to let it boil. You test it in this way: moisten your fingers in this water, and if, when they are cool, they stick together, the glue is good; but if not, heat it until they do stick together. Then pour this glue into a clean vessel, and again fill the pot with water and heat as before. Do this four times.
Oil of hartshorn is a crude animal oil obtained from the destructive distillation of the deers' bones or horns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartshorn
Theophilus (c.1122) "On Divers Arts" Translated from Latin by C.R. Dodwell to The Various Arts; published by Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd. in 1961.
CHAPTER CVIIII HOW GOAT GLUE IS MADE, AND HOW IT IS TEMPERED; AND HOW MANY PURPOSES IT WILL SERVE.
And there is a glue which is known as leaf glue; this is made of clippings of a goat’s muzzles, feet, sinews, and many clippings of skins. This glue is made in March or January, during those strong frosts or winds; and it is boiled with clear water until it is reduced to less than half. Then put it into certain flat dishes, like jelly molds or basins, straining it thoroughly, Let is tand overnight. Then, in the morning, cut it with a knife into slices like bread; put it on a mat to dry in the wind, out of the sunlight; and an ideal glue will result. This glue is used by painters, by saddlers, and by ever so many masters, as I shall show you later on. And it is good glue for wood, and for many things. […]
Cennini, Cennino d’Andrea (lived c. 1360–1427) "Il Libro Dell’Arte" The Craftsman’s Handbook, translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. 1933 Dover Publications, NY (no publishing date, but after 1960).
186. How to make glue from the skin of an ox or a cote.
—Take the skin of an ox or a cow, as thick as you can find it, which has already been tanned for shoes, and put it in a jar and pour water upon it, and make it boil over the fire from daybreak on a summer's day until nearly the third hour of the day, pouring water into it when necessary, or, when it is much diminished, pour off the water, which has boiled so long, and pour in clean water, and make it boil again until the sixth hour. Then pour off this water, which will be nearly all evaporated, and again pour clean water into the jar over the same leather, and do not renew it more than once or twice more. And take great care not to let it boil over, and then, having boiled it down to one-third, pour it into a vase, and leave it to cool all that day and night. In the morning of the next day if it is coagulated in the vase, put your finger upon it. If any part of it remains sticking to your finger, you may know that it is not good, and may throw it away as refuse. Afterwards fill up the jar with water as before, in order to boil it with the leather ; and you must not fill it up any more, but take all possible care not to let it boil over. You will know when it is good by (after you have boiled it sufficiently and let it cool) putting your finger upon it as before, to see whether it is hard ; and the harder you find it, the better you may know it to be.
Afterwards putting a small portion of it into an earthen vase, set it on the coals and make it rather warm. Then, removing the vase from the fire, keep it at a moderate heat over a slow fire made of a few pieces of charcoal, lest it should be con S. AUDEMAR DE COLORIBUS FACIENDIS. 149 grossiores vero quae per pannum transpire non poterunt iterum in ipso mortario mitte et molle sicut antea feceras. Et 3emper minutiorem partem per pannum transpire facias sicut dictum est et repone cum similibus minutiis et sic postquam in mundissi- mum pulverem redegeris stannum protrahe super pergamenum et super pannum flores et imagines et quodcumque opus volu- cris. Et in ipso opera per loca que de aurare vel argenteare voles, pones v
Mrs Merriefield (1849) ORIGINAL TREATISES, DATING FROM THE XIIth TO XVIIIth CENTURIES in the ARTS OF PAINTING William Clowes & Sons. London
Free download at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=2xgGAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=ORIGINAL+TREATISES,+DATING+FROM+THE+XIIth+TO+XVIIIth+CENTURIES+in+the+ARTS+OF+PAINTING&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjy28OGucvPAhVCKCYKHTqKDGAQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=ORIGINAL%20TREATISES%2C%20DATING%20FROM%20THE%20XIIth%20TO%20XVIIIth%20CENTURIES%20in%20the%20ARTS%20OF%20PAINTING&f=false
A neat article on period glue as it pertains to modern wood working:
http://www.oldbrownglue.com/images/articles/Why_not_period_glue.pdf
A class handout with lots of background information on different period glues :
http://www.rocks4brains.com/glue.pdf
Saturday, October 1, 2016
DIY Iron Gall and Acorn Ink
Based on the Iron Gall Ink; now Featuring Acorns! handout by Robert Meyer.
I took this class in the winter of 2016 and had great fun doing so, thank you Robert!
Iron Gall Ink can be traced back to antiquity and was one of the most commonly used ink on old manuscripts. It is often referred to as 'common ink'. Some of the oldest recipes come from Pliny the Elder, a roman author, and even the dead sea scrolls were found to contain iron ink.
Traditionally, ink was made with oak galls. Galls are growth found on oak trees that are triggered by insects puncturing the branches and can be very difficult to find. A good substitute are the acorns from the tree. The chemical used for ink is called tannin. Slow cooking galls or acorns in water will allow the tannin to be released. To preserve their ink, some scribes would ferment their ink, whereas others would preserve it with cloves.
Acorn tannin is a hydrolysable tannin, meaning it is a type of tannin that, on heating with hydrochloric or sulfuric acids, it yields blue black gallic or ellagic acids, the base for ink. Iron ink is made by adding iron sulfate, also called vitriol, to your tannic acid. The darkening of the ink is caused by oxidation of the iron. Ink would range in pH from about 2 (a lemon) to a 5 (a cup of coffee); if too acidic the addition of crushed egg shells, which contain the buffering agent calcium carbonate, would raise the pH to about a neutral 7.
Now we're cooking!
As continued multiple day cooking is optimal for making ink a modern crockpot or slow cooker is a safe option.
Fill the crockpot half full with oak acorns, and top it off with water.
Cook for 3 to 7 days and keep adding water as needed to keep the acorns covered.
As this can get smelly it would be good to cook this outdoors in a garage or similar.
Meanwhile, put as many rusty metal nails, chain, pot scrubby, fencing remnants, wire etc in a jar and cover all of this with vinegar. Let this sit - without a lid! - for a few days. The exothermic reaction will build up pressure and can blow the jar or lid right off! Now you've made your own iron sulfate, also called iron mordant in dyeing jargon, by sending ferrous iron through a sulfuric acid bath. As it sits you'll notice the liquid darken and see bubbles floating to the top.
After waiting patiently, strain the now dark liquid from your cooked acorns through a colander into a a container. The spent acorns can be tossed. Take the liquid and put it into glass jars. Place the jars back into the crockpot and pour water around the bottles, au bain marie style.
Cook for about three days to evaporate excess water from the tannin solution.
Keep adding water to the crockpot so it does not run dry (and overheat the tannin jars) and do not put lids on the jars as then the tannin liquid can not shed its excess water.
And now we'll make ink! Take the reduced tannin and pour in the iron sulfate. Make sure to give the iron sulfate a good shake, with the lid on, before adding it. Then add some honey. This is the binder that will help maintain particle suspension throughout the solution. And then you can add a lid, and either ferment it, or add some cloves as a preservative. Both methods were commonly used.
You can also add 10% alcohol by volume as a preservative (like 100-proof vodka) by using the following recipe, where X stands for the amount of alcohol needed to end with a 10% concentration.
AX = B(C+X)
Where:
A = alcohol proof divided by 200. This is the alcohol concentration of your alcohol expressed as a decimal.
B = the alcohol concentration, expressed as a decimal, in your finished ink.
C = the volume, in ml, of raw ink you are starting with.
X = the volume, in ml, of alcohol you must add to the raw ink.
If oak galls are used instead of the more easily to find oak acorns, break up the galls and simmer in water for about a half hour. If cooked in cast iron, the iron from the pot will be absorbed into the tannin liquid as well. Then add iron sulfate, give it some time to oxidize and test by writing until it is dark enough or until it is saturated and does not stay in solution anymore. Of course, any plant that contains gallic acid can be used to make ink with; black oak galls have a very high concentration of gallic acid at 6-9% but plants like sumac, witch hazel, tea leaves, oak bark, black walnut etc can also be used.
Gum Arabic is another period ink additive, like honey it keeps the iron in suspension but it also glues the ink to the paper and helps lubricate the liquid for easy writing with a quill pen. Use 1 part gum Arabic to 30 parts ink.
Interested in learning more?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink
http://irongallink.org/igi_index.html
https://elementsunearthed.com/2014/05/08/making-iron-gall-ink/
https://sites.google.com/a/open-ink.com/open-ink/inks/old-recipies/vegetal/black-walnut-ink
For period ink recipes check earlier posts on this blog in the On Pigments & Ink chapter.
I took this class in the winter of 2016 and had great fun doing so, thank you Robert!
Iron Gall Ink can be traced back to antiquity and was one of the most commonly used ink on old manuscripts. It is often referred to as 'common ink'. Some of the oldest recipes come from Pliny the Elder, a roman author, and even the dead sea scrolls were found to contain iron ink.
Traditionally, ink was made with oak galls. Galls are growth found on oak trees that are triggered by insects puncturing the branches and can be very difficult to find. A good substitute are the acorns from the tree. The chemical used for ink is called tannin. Slow cooking galls or acorns in water will allow the tannin to be released. To preserve their ink, some scribes would ferment their ink, whereas others would preserve it with cloves.
Acorn tannin is a hydrolysable tannin, meaning it is a type of tannin that, on heating with hydrochloric or sulfuric acids, it yields blue black gallic or ellagic acids, the base for ink. Iron ink is made by adding iron sulfate, also called vitriol, to your tannic acid. The darkening of the ink is caused by oxidation of the iron. Ink would range in pH from about 2 (a lemon) to a 5 (a cup of coffee); if too acidic the addition of crushed egg shells, which contain the buffering agent calcium carbonate, would raise the pH to about a neutral 7.
Now we're cooking!
As continued multiple day cooking is optimal for making ink a modern crockpot or slow cooker is a safe option.
Fill the crockpot half full with oak acorns, and top it off with water.
Cook for 3 to 7 days and keep adding water as needed to keep the acorns covered.
As this can get smelly it would be good to cook this outdoors in a garage or similar.
Meanwhile, put as many rusty metal nails, chain, pot scrubby, fencing remnants, wire etc in a jar and cover all of this with vinegar. Let this sit - without a lid! - for a few days. The exothermic reaction will build up pressure and can blow the jar or lid right off! Now you've made your own iron sulfate, also called iron mordant in dyeing jargon, by sending ferrous iron through a sulfuric acid bath. As it sits you'll notice the liquid darken and see bubbles floating to the top.
After waiting patiently, strain the now dark liquid from your cooked acorns through a colander into a a container. The spent acorns can be tossed. Take the liquid and put it into glass jars. Place the jars back into the crockpot and pour water around the bottles, au bain marie style.
Cook for about three days to evaporate excess water from the tannin solution.
Keep adding water to the crockpot so it does not run dry (and overheat the tannin jars) and do not put lids on the jars as then the tannin liquid can not shed its excess water.
And now we'll make ink! Take the reduced tannin and pour in the iron sulfate. Make sure to give the iron sulfate a good shake, with the lid on, before adding it. Then add some honey. This is the binder that will help maintain particle suspension throughout the solution. And then you can add a lid, and either ferment it, or add some cloves as a preservative. Both methods were commonly used.
You can also add 10% alcohol by volume as a preservative (like 100-proof vodka) by using the following recipe, where X stands for the amount of alcohol needed to end with a 10% concentration.
AX = B(C+X)
Where:
A = alcohol proof divided by 200. This is the alcohol concentration of your alcohol expressed as a decimal.
B = the alcohol concentration, expressed as a decimal, in your finished ink.
C = the volume, in ml, of raw ink you are starting with.
X = the volume, in ml, of alcohol you must add to the raw ink.
If oak galls are used instead of the more easily to find oak acorns, break up the galls and simmer in water for about a half hour. If cooked in cast iron, the iron from the pot will be absorbed into the tannin liquid as well. Then add iron sulfate, give it some time to oxidize and test by writing until it is dark enough or until it is saturated and does not stay in solution anymore. Of course, any plant that contains gallic acid can be used to make ink with; black oak galls have a very high concentration of gallic acid at 6-9% but plants like sumac, witch hazel, tea leaves, oak bark, black walnut etc can also be used.
Gum Arabic is another period ink additive, like honey it keeps the iron in suspension but it also glues the ink to the paper and helps lubricate the liquid for easy writing with a quill pen. Use 1 part gum Arabic to 30 parts ink.
Interested in learning more?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink
http://irongallink.org/igi_index.html
https://elementsunearthed.com/2014/05/08/making-iron-gall-ink/
https://sites.google.com/a/open-ink.com/open-ink/inks/old-recipies/vegetal/black-walnut-ink
For period ink recipes check earlier posts on this blog in the On Pigments & Ink chapter.
To make Ynke
Wryting Inke
WRyting Inke tempered with water, wyne, or vinegar, wherein Woormwood hath bene stie|ped: Myse wyl not eate the Papers or Letters writ|ten with that Inke. And also cloathes wherein Woormwood is layde or wrapt, is safe from mothes: and if there be any there, it wyll driue them awaye. Diascorides.
Thomas Lupton, A Thousand Notable Things, 1579
To make blacke Ynk very good.
TAke a pound and a halfe of raine water, with three vnces of the waighttest Galles you can finde, bruse them into small peeces and poore them into the said water and let it stande two daies in the sunne. Then put to it two vnces of Ro|maine vitriolle wel colored and beate~ small, and mixe all well togither with a sticke of a Figge tree, & leaue it againe two daies more in the Sunne. Finally put to it an vnce of Gomme Arabicke that is eleere and bright and beaten into pouder, and an vnce of the pill of Pomegranades, and than boile it a little with a slowe fier: that doen straine it, and kepe it in a vessell of Leade or Glasse, and it will be very blacke and per|fite good.
To make Greene Ynke.
TAke Verdegris elect & fayer, and make it into past with a little strong Vinagre and distilled water of Grene galle, and let it drie, and whan you will write with it te~per it with the same water of greene gall putting to it a little gomme Arabike.
Girolamo Ruscelli, The Seconde Part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont, 1560
The Maner to make Ynke
Take a pottel of reyne wat' and breke half a ll. of galle, eche galle in iij. or iiij. pec?, and lete this galle stode in y forsayd water iiij. or v. dayes, and than poure out y vpermost of the water, and put therto di. ll. weyght off vitryol in pouder, and put therin in an erthen vessel, and stere hem wel togeyd', and stoppe the potte than none eyer cum therto, and lete it stonde a daye and a nyght, and then take di. ll. off gome of stryter weyght than was y vitryoll and put it therto, and stoppe ayen the pott, and stere it aboute, and at iij. or iiij. dayes ende then take the forsayd gallis and drye them in the sonne, and breke them smaller then they were, and put therto a quartir and di. of water, and lete hem stode vij. nyghtes, and pure out the cler water, and put therto lesse than a q.' of vitrioll in small pouder, and doo as is before sayde, and put therto lesse weight of gome then of the vitriol, and wyth that later ynke temper y fyrst ynke when nede is, and yf tho tempre good ynke wyth semple water, it wyl turne to corrupcion, and the iij. tyme sethe the galle in water tyl the be softe, and porcion the remenant as is before sayde. Use and crafte shal teche the better, &c.
The Customs of London, 1503
More recipes available in
Medieval Arabic Bookmaking and its relation to early Chemistry and Pharmacology by Martin Levey of Yale University, available for free download at:
http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/books/Levey-1962/Levey-1962-Medieval-Arabic-Bookmaking-Ibn-Badis-01-23.pdf
The Craftsman's Handbook: "Il Libro dell' Arte" by Cennino d'Andrea Cennini, translated by Jr. Daniel V. Thompson, 1954 has some info on page 116-117 on drawing with pen & ink, washes of ink, and making ink for block printing on cloths.
https://www.amazon.com/Craftsmans-Handbook-Libro-dell-Arte/dp/048620054X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475336413&sr=8-1&keywords=cennino+cennini
Theophilus has five mentions of ink in his On Divers Arts.
https://www.amazon.com/Divers-Arts-Dover-Art-Instruction/dp/0486237842/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475336360&sr=8-1&keywords=theophilus+on+divers+arts
WRyting Inke tempered with water, wyne, or vinegar, wherein Woormwood hath bene stie|ped: Myse wyl not eate the Papers or Letters writ|ten with that Inke. And also cloathes wherein Woormwood is layde or wrapt, is safe from mothes: and if there be any there, it wyll driue them awaye. Diascorides.
Thomas Lupton, A Thousand Notable Things, 1579
To make blacke Ynk very good.
TAke a pound and a halfe of raine water, with three vnces of the waighttest Galles you can finde, bruse them into small peeces and poore them into the said water and let it stande two daies in the sunne. Then put to it two vnces of Ro|maine vitriolle wel colored and beate~ small, and mixe all well togither with a sticke of a Figge tree, & leaue it againe two daies more in the Sunne. Finally put to it an vnce of Gomme Arabicke that is eleere and bright and beaten into pouder, and an vnce of the pill of Pomegranades, and than boile it a little with a slowe fier: that doen straine it, and kepe it in a vessell of Leade or Glasse, and it will be very blacke and per|fite good.
To make Greene Ynke.
TAke Verdegris elect & fayer, and make it into past with a little strong Vinagre and distilled water of Grene galle, and let it drie, and whan you will write with it te~per it with the same water of greene gall putting to it a little gomme Arabike.
Girolamo Ruscelli, The Seconde Part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont, 1560
The Maner to make Ynke
Take a pottel of reyne wat' and breke half a ll. of galle, eche galle in iij. or iiij. pec?, and lete this galle stode in y forsayd water iiij. or v. dayes, and than poure out y vpermost of the water, and put therto di. ll. weyght off vitryol in pouder, and put therin in an erthen vessel, and stere hem wel togeyd', and stoppe the potte than none eyer cum therto, and lete it stonde a daye and a nyght, and then take di. ll. off gome of stryter weyght than was y vitryoll and put it therto, and stoppe ayen the pott, and stere it aboute, and at iij. or iiij. dayes ende then take the forsayd gallis and drye them in the sonne, and breke them smaller then they were, and put therto a quartir and di. of water, and lete hem stode vij. nyghtes, and pure out the cler water, and put therto lesse than a q.' of vitrioll in small pouder, and doo as is before sayde, and put therto lesse weight of gome then of the vitriol, and wyth that later ynke temper y fyrst ynke when nede is, and yf tho tempre good ynke wyth semple water, it wyl turne to corrupcion, and the iij. tyme sethe the galle in water tyl the be softe, and porcion the remenant as is before sayde. Use and crafte shal teche the better, &c.
The Customs of London, 1503
More recipes available in
Medieval Arabic Bookmaking and its relation to early Chemistry and Pharmacology by Martin Levey of Yale University, available for free download at:
http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/books/Levey-1962/Levey-1962-Medieval-Arabic-Bookmaking-Ibn-Badis-01-23.pdf
The Craftsman's Handbook: "Il Libro dell' Arte" by Cennino d'Andrea Cennini, translated by Jr. Daniel V. Thompson, 1954 has some info on page 116-117 on drawing with pen & ink, washes of ink, and making ink for block printing on cloths.
https://www.amazon.com/Craftsmans-Handbook-Libro-dell-Arte/dp/048620054X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475336413&sr=8-1&keywords=cennino+cennini
Theophilus has five mentions of ink in his On Divers Arts.
https://www.amazon.com/Divers-Arts-Dover-Art-Instruction/dp/0486237842/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475336360&sr=8-1&keywords=theophilus+on+divers+arts
To write letters vpon a mans body that shall neuer be rubbed out...
For to write letters vpon a mans body or face that shall neuer be rubbed out.
YOu muste go into the stooues or hote houses whiche be very hote, and when you are in a sweate write vpo~ your bodie with what inke you will, then cut the skin with a sharpe ra|sour, and fill the cuttes with earth of what colour you will, and leaue them so and incontinent by reason of the greate heate the skin will close & shut vp togither and the letters or figures that you haue made vpon your fleshe will remaine for euer.
From The Seconde Part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont by Girolamo Ruscelli, 1560
YOu muste go into the stooues or hote houses whiche be very hote, and when you are in a sweate write vpo~ your bodie with what inke you will, then cut the skin with a sharpe ra|sour, and fill the cuttes with earth of what colour you will, and leaue them so and incontinent by reason of the greate heate the skin will close & shut vp togither and the letters or figures that you haue made vpon your fleshe will remaine for euer.
From The Seconde Part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont by Girolamo Ruscelli, 1560
Ink recipes from A Booke of Secrets, 1596.
By W. Philip - transcribed, edited and provided with a technical glossary by Jack C. Thompson
From: Manuscript Inks by Jack C. Thompson © 1996 The Caber Press
A Booke of Secrets
A Booke of Secrets is a 1596 translation of a Dutch edition (which itself may have been translated from a 1531 German text) that contains a wonderful collection of ink recipes. These include iron gall ink recipes formulated for paper and parchment, and recipes for making different colored inks. In addition there are instructions for etching in metal and coloring quill pens. The text concludes with a technical glossary and a list of source literature. A Booke of Secrets was published in 1995 by The Caber Press in Manuscript Inks. This publication also contains instructions for making iron sulfate (ferrous sulfate/copperas/green vitriol) and iron gall ink, and includes a text on the manufacture of carbon ink sticks by Claes G. Lindblad. Manuscript Inks can be purchased by contacting Jack Thompson. He also sells sample sets of various iron gall inks. This text is a good example of a type of source used by art historians to research historic artist techniques. You might find it helpful to refer to Source Reserach which illustrates the difficulties in interpreting these sources.
Hundreds of recipes for iron gall ink have been published over the centuries. The sheer variety and number of these recipes testify to the widespread use of iron gall ink and its primary importance to our literary and artistic traditions. Artists and scribes, domestics and entrepreneurs each concocted their own formula to suit their particular needs. Interest in making historic inks has increased in the last several years, due in large part to the efforts of a few ink enthusiasts who have shared their
vast knowledge and experience on the subject. This website is an effort to continue this dialogue, by sharing information about iron gall ink and promoting an appreciation for its unique place in history. It is surprisingly easy to make iron gall ink - the earliest recipes are often the simplest - and the ingredients are inexpensive and readily available.
Foreword
The original copy of the text which follows is owned by the Yale Center for British Art and the editor appreciates the good offices of Elisabeth Fairman in making it available for this publication. After reading a photocopy of the text, I thought it would be worthwhile to reproduce the text with a technical glossary to help explain some of the more obscure terms. The term, conterfein, was located in only one source; Hoover's translation of De Re Metallica. "Well leaded" has been taken to mean "glazed," given that most recipes for early glazing compounds include lead in their formulae. The original text was black letter, with paragraph headings in a roman font. Aside from changing the black letter to a more legible font, the text is, for the most part, unchanged from the original; "u" has been replaced with "v" where appropriate in modern usage (i.e., "conuenient" is now "convenient," etc.). One spelling error has been corrected ("tino" is "into") and a missing word has been supplied: "To keepe that neither Mise nor [moths] eat or fret the paper...."
Secreta, or books of secrets, have been a mainstay of scholarship and research for a very long time; the tradition continues today in the notes which students make in class, in a lab, and in the library. In this, they follow a very old tradition; accurate information mingled with folklore and opinion. The recipe for a gold color, on p. 9, is a goo example. The reference to Michaelmas day [29 September] suggests an English origin for that recipe, while the reference to Saint Laurance day [10 August] suggests a French origin. The Dutch work which was translated into English was entitled: Ettliche Künste, auff mancherley Weisz Dinten und allerhand Faben zu bereyten; essentially the same as: Artliche kunste mancherley weyse Dinten und aller hand farben zubereyten, which was published in Nuremberg, in 1531. Neither the Dutch nor the German texts have been compared with the English translation, but it would seem that they are, more or less, the same.
[editor's note: the original Dutch A bouck of wondre is from 1513. The title given above for the Dutch book is German and the date later than the Dutch version, suggesting that the German was a translation of the Dutch, and the English a later translation.]
I am indebted to David Meesters, of Amsterdam, for providing information about aloe epaticum, via internet.
Jack C. Thompson
Portland, Oregon
August, 1995
A Booke of secrets
And first to make inke in divers maners
It is first to bee understood that if you wil make a great quantitie of Inke
together, you must encrease the waight, and measure, according to the
proportion you meane to make, as for example, if you will make ten quarts
of Inke, then take foure quarts of water, and sixe quarts of vineger and
wine, that is, three of each sort, which together with the water make ten
quarts, and so must you doe with other quantities, either more or lesse. The
like must you doe in the waight of your other stuffe that belongeth
thereunto, as for a pint of water, six ounces of gaule, foure ounces of
victriall, and foure ounces of gum, and if you take foure quarts of water
(which is eight pints) if you give to every pint his proportion, then
multiplying either by sixe they make fortie eight, so many ounces of gaule
must you put to ten quarts, mixed as afore said with wine, vineger, and
water, and of victrial and gum, of each xxxii ounces, according to the first
proportion, and so must you observe your quantities, of waight and measure
in each proportion, as you are minded to encrease the same, as in this
treatise you shall read.
To make Inke to write upon paper
Take halfe a pint of water, a pint wanting a quarter of wine, and as much
vineger, which being mixed together make a quart and a quarter of a pint
more, then take six ounces of gauls beaten into small pouder, and sifted
through a sive, put this pouder into a pot by it selfe, and poure halfe the
water, wine and vineger into it, take likewise foure ounces of victriall, and
beat it into pouder, and put it also in a pot by itselfe, whereinto put a
quarter of the wine, water, and vineger that remaineth, and to the other
quarter, put foure ounces of gum Arabike beaten to a pouder, that done,
cover the three pots close, and let them stand three or foure daies together,
stirring them every day three or foure times, on the first day set the pot
with the gauls on the fire, and when it begins to seeth, stir it about till it be
throughly warme, then straine it through a cloath into another pot, and mixe
it with the other two pots. stirring them well together, and being covered,
then let it stand three daies, till thou meanest to use it, on the fourth day,
when it is setled, poure it out, and it wil be good inke. If there remaine any
dregs behind poure some raine water (that hath stand long in a tub or
vessell) into it, for the older the water is, the better it is, and keepe that
untill you make more inke, so it is better then clean water.
To make Inke for parchment
Make it in all points like to the inke aforesaid, only take a pint of water, and
of vineger and wine a pint more, that is, of each halfe a pint.
Another sort of Inke
Take a quart of cleare water, and put it in a glasse, put into it thirteene
ounces beaten victriall, let it stand three daies, and stir it three or foure
times every day, then take thirteene ounces of beaten gaules, and put them
into a new earthern pot, that is wel leaded, poure into them a quart of
cleane water, that done, set it on the fire, and let it seeth till it consumeth
about a finger deepe, but suffer it not to seeth so fast that it seeth over the
pots brim, then strain it through a wollen cloath, into another pot, that is
leaded, poure into the cloath a cup full of good vineger, and strain it through
likewise, that done, if there remaineth anything in the cloath, cast it away,
then put into the matter, foure or five ounces of beaten gum, and stir them
well together, then again straine them through a cleane wollen cloath, and
poure into a cup full of good vineger, and straine it through the cloath, and
let it stand till it be coole, then put it into a straight necked glasse, stop both
the glasses well, til you have occasion to use them, then take of each water
a little quantitie, and mix them together, so have you good inke.
Another of the same sort, but easie to make
Take the beaten gauls, and put them in the water, doe the like with the
victriall in a pot by it selfe, let those two waters stand, and when you have
cause to use inke, poure out of each pot a like quantitie, and it will be
blacke, then put into it a little beaten gum, and it will bee good inke.
Another
Take a quart of strong wine, put it into a new pot, and set it on a soft fire till
it be hote, but let it not seeth, then put into it foure ounces of gauls, two
ounces and a halfe of gum Arabike,and two ounces of victriall, al beaten into
smal pouder, and sifted through a sive, stirre it with a wooden stic
To make coloured inks
Of red colour, and first of Brasill
You must take care when you seeth Brasill, that you do it when the element
is clear, without clouds, raine, or wind, otherwise it will not be good, you
must make it thus:
Take quicklime, poure raine water upon it, let it stand all night, in the
morning poure the water softly from the lime, or straine it through a cloath,
and for a quart of water, take an ounce of Brasill, let it seeth till it be halfe
consumed, then put into it one ounce of beaten alum, one ounce of gum
Arabike, two ounces of gum of a Cheritree, or else two ounces of cleane
glue, straine it from the wood: you may likewise put into it some chalke
beaten to pouder.
To seeth Brasill another way
To an ounce of Brasill, take the third part of a quart of beere, wine, or
vineger, put it in a new pot, let it stand a night, in the morning set it on the
fire and let it seeth till it be halfe consumed, then for every ounce of Brasill,
take two pennyworth of alum, beaten to pouder, and as much beaten gum
Arabike, stir them wel together, and let them seeth againe but if you desire
to have it somewhat darke, then scrape a little chalke into it: when it
seeteth, let it not seeth over the pot, and being cold, strain it through a
cloath, and put it into a glasse well stopped.
Another red colour
Mingle salt and honny together in a bason, let it stand eight daies, then
seeth it, and it will be a red colour.
Purple colour
Take two pound of blew heidleber, two ounces of alum, one ounce of ashes
of copper, which you may have at the brasiers, a pint of water, put them into
a ketle, let it seeth till it consume two fingers deepe, when it is cold, straine
it through a clout, in a cleane glasse or pot, let it stand a while, then straine
it into another pot, and let it stand till it be thicke enough.
To make Rosin
Take strong vinegar, or wine, and put pouder of alum therein, when the alum
is dissolved, then make a strong and thicke lee with quickelime, and take
foure times as much Brasill as your alum waieth, put it in a clout, and hang
it in the lee, and let it stand a day and a night, then straine it, and hang the
Brasill again in the lee, and let it stand as long as it did the first time, which
doe in like manner three or foure times, when you have done so let it stand
and drie, and it is perfect.
Another Rosin
Take two parts red lead, one part white lead, and mingle them together, or
take Auripigmentum and red lead, of each a like quantitie, and mingle them
together.
Fire colour
Take sout of a chimney, and a little alum, let them boile, then take gineper,
granded with water, and temper it together, with alum and gum Arabike.
Tawny colour
Take blacking, and mingle it with red lead and gum Arabike.
Yellow colour
Take hauthorne berries, gather them eight daies after Saint Laurence day,
bruse them and put a little beaten alum unto them, stirre them well
together, and let them stand one night, and it will be a faire yellow.
Another good yellow
Take the barke of a tree, cut off the outside, and throw it away, cut the rest
in small peeces, and poure water unto them, let them seeth two or three
times, then put pouder of alum into it, stirre them well together, and let
them seeth againe.
Another yellow
Mix saffron with the yolke of an eg, and it maketh a faire shining colour.
Otherwise.
Put saffron and alum into a clout, and put vineger into it, and strain it out:
or take saffron, the yolke of an eg, gum Arabike and alum, and mix them
together.
Auripigmentum
Take gaule of Eeles, or of other great fishes, or oxe gaule, put some vineger
to it, and a little chalke, and make a paste thereof.
Greene colour
Take the blacke berries that grow on the hauthorne tree, and gather them
eight daies after Michaelmas day, bruse them, poure water into them, and
put therein a little beaten alum, stir them well together, and let them stand
two daies and a night, and it will be good greene.
A faire greene colour
Take honie, put a little quantitie of vineger more then the honie is, into it,
mingle it well in a leaded or a copper pot, stop it well, and set it twelve daies
under another pot, and put thereto a little chalke.
Also take copper plates, put them in a copper pot, and put stilled vineger to
them, set them in a warm place, till the vineger become blew, then put it
into another leaded pot, poure vineger into it againe, let it stand so till it
become blew, this doe so many times, till you thinke you have inough, then
let it stand till it be thick.
To temper or prepare Verdigreece
Grind it with wine, and put two or three drops of honny to it.
To make good greene
Take copper plates, let them lie six months in vineger in a warme place, then
take them out, and drie them in the sun, and the flower you find upon the
plates, scrape it of, for that is the colour.
Blew colour
Grind chalke with the juice of the elder berries, straine it through a clout,
put a little alum water unto it, let it drie, and keep it til you need.
In the same sort you may make colour of the blew corne flowers. Also the
juice of the blew corn flowers alone, with alum and gum tempered together,
is a good blew.
Also mulberies boiled with alum.
Also take blew corn flowers that are not too much blowne, and gather them
in a morning before the sun riseth, plucke the blew leafe, and let not any of
the white come among them, and put them into a copper kettle, and hang it
in seething water, till they be drie, keepe them in a glasse well covered.
When you wil make colour of them, then take some of the blew leaves, and
put them into a drinking glasse, poure water into them, till it be thicke like
dowe, let it stand covered twelve houres, then presse the liquor through a
cloath into another glasse, and put a little glue into it, and set it in a warme
place, or else in whote water, untill it bee drie and thicke to use.
To make Azure
Take one ounce of white lead, nine ounces of Indicum, pour good vineger
unto it, put them in a leaded dish, let them seeth well, and that which
swimmeth on the top is the colour.
Or take two parts of chalk made of egshels, one part of Verdigreece, one
part of Salarmoniacke, mingle them together with strong vineger, and put
them in a new pot, stop it well, that no aire issue forth, set it in a warme
place for a month long, and it will be Azure.
To temper or prepare Azure
Wash it wel in cleane water, and that swimmeth on the top, cast it away, and
that which lieth in the bottome, is good, doe so three or four times one after
another, and let the water bee cleane poured from it, then take white of egs
that are well beaten, put thereto a little beaten gum Arabike, and let it stand
till the gum is dissolved, then put the Azure into it, and mingle them well
together, straine it through a linnen cloath into an inkehorne, and use it
when you will.
A faire blew
Grind the Azure with faire water very well upon a stone, then put it in a
horne or shell, and pour water theron, stir them wel together, then let them
stand half a day, then pour out the water, and take the gaule of a great fish,
and grind it with gum and the white of egs, and use it when you thinke
good.
White colour
To write with chalke out of a pen upon blacke tables or paper.
Grind quicklime, egshels, and chalke, together with the milke of a goat.
To make chalke of egshels
Take egshels, and let them lie three daies in vineger, then wash them well in
faire water, drie them in the sun, and beat them to pouder, then grind them
upon a stone.
A good white colour
Take white glasse wel beaten to pouder, put thereto some brimstone in
pouder, and keep it in a pot wel covered, set it upon a soft fire, til it be red
hote, then let it coole, and grind it on a stone.
Gold colours
To Make Aurum Musicum
Take one ounce of Salarmoniack, one ounce of quick silver, one ounce of
Conterfein, halfe an ounce of brimstone, bruse the brimstone, set it on the
fire, but let it not be over hote least it burneth, or become black, then take
the Salarmoniack, and the quick silver, being in pouder, mix them wel
together, then mingle them with the brimstone, stir them well and quickly
with a sticke, till the brimstone becommeth hard, then let it cool, grind it on
a stone, and put it in a glasse with a long neck wel stopped with luttum, and
set it in a pan with ashes, make a fire under it, and let it stand halfe a day,
in such maner, not over hote, till a yellow smoke riseth upon it, and when
the yellow smoke is gone, then it is prepared.
Otherwise
Take an ounce of tin, melt it in a pot, put into it half an ounce of Tartarum,
and one ounce of quick silver, stir them together, till it bee hard, and
congealed into a cake, then grind it well upon a stone, put to it one ounce of
beaten Salarmoniack, mix them wel together, then melt one ounce of
brimstone, but make it not too hote, poure the ground pouder into it, stirre
it well untill it bee hard, let it coole, and doe as before is said.
You must temper it thus
Grind it well, wash it wel in clean water out of one mussell shell into another,
till it bee very cleane, then put it into a pewter pot, put some gum water
therein, stir it about, and write therwith, let it drie, and polish it.
Argentum Musicum
Melt an ounce of Tin, and put thereto an ounce of Tartarum, an ounce of
quick silver, stirre it well til it be cold, beat it in a morter, then grind it on a
stone, temper it with alum water, and write therewith, then polish it.
To write a gold colour
Take a new laid hens eg, make a hole at the one end of it, and let the
substance out, then take the yolk of an eg, without the white, and foure
times as much in quantity of quick silver, grind them well together, stop the
hole of the egshell with chalke and the white of an eg, then lay it under a
hen that sitteth with six egs more, let her sit upon it three weekes, then
breake it up and write therewith, some say it must bee laid under three
several hens, and under each hen three weekes.
To write with gold out of a pensill
Take hony and salt a like quantity, grind them wel, put to it a leaf of gold
with a little white of an eg, put it into a mussell shel, and let it purifie,
temper it with gum water, and write therewith, let it drie, and polish it with a
tooth.
Or grind saltstone well with the white of an eg, put into it a leafe or two of
gold, and write therewith as before.
Or grind a leaf of silver or gold very smal with gum water, and wash it in a
mussell shel as aforesaid.
To write all mettals out of the pen
Grind cristall well, temper it with gum water, or the white of an eg, write
with it, then let it drie, then take the mettal, which you wil, and rub it upon
the letters writen, till the letter bee well coloured with the color of the
mettall, then polish it with a tooth.
Or take cristall and pomestone, both ground very small, put thereto a little
verdigreece, beaten likewise to pouder, and put them all into a leaded
pipkin, set it upon a soft fire, but let it not bee too hote, let it not stand so
long on the fire, that it becommeth as blacke as a coale, then grind it on a
stone, temper it with gum water, write with it as aforesaid.
A good gold colour
Take linseed oile, put into it a little Aloe Epaticum, and alum, let them seeth
well in a leaden pot.
To lay gold upon anything
Take red lead, temper it with linseed oile, write with it, and lay gold upon it,
so let it drie, and polish it.
Or lay gum Arabike in vineger, so long til it wareth white, take it out and put
it into the white of egs, till it melteth, write w ith it, when it is almost drie,
lay the gold upon it, then let it stand one night, and polish it.
To lay gold upon glasse
Grind chalke, and red lead in like qantity together, with linseed oile, lay it on,
when it is almost drie, lay your gold upon it, and being well dried, polish it.
End of the colours.
Another
Take an ounce of beaten gaule, three or four ounces of gum Arabicke, put
them together in a pot with reine water, and when the gum is almost
consumed, strain it through a cloath, and put into it almost halfe a cup of
victriall beaten to pouder.
Another
Take a pint of beere, put into it an ounce of gaules beaten to pouder, let it
seeth till it seeme somewhat red, then put to it three quarters of an ounce
of greene victriall, in small pouder, and let it seeth againe, when you take it
off the fire, cast into it three quarters of an ounce of gum and a small peece
of alum, both in pouder, and stir them all together till it be cold.
Another
Take two handfull of gauls, cut each gaule either into three or four peeces,
poure into them a pint of beere or wine, which you wil then let it stand eight
houres, straine it from the gaules, and put victriall therein, and to the
victriall a third part of gum, set it on the fire to warm, but let it not seeth,
and it will be good inke: and of those gaules you may make inke foure or
five times more.
To make inke upon a suddaine, to serve in an extremetie
Take a wax candle, and light it, hold it under a cleane bason or a
candlesticke, till the smoke of the candle hangeth thereon, then put a little
warme gum water into it, which tempered together will be good inke.
To keepe Inke that it sinketh not into the paper neither that it come
not off and that moths nor mise hurt not the paper
Take the shels of hazell nuts, and put them into the inke, and it will not sinke
through the paper. And that it may not come off, put a little salt into it. To
keepe that Mise nor eat or fret the paper, put a little wormwood water into
the inke.
To write without inke, that it may not be seen, unlesse the paper be
wet with water
Take pouder of victriall, and put it into a cleane inkehorne, put a little cleane
water to it when the victriall is dissolved, write with it either upon paper or
parchment, and let it drie, and it cannot bee read: when you will read it take
halfe a pint of water, and put thereto an ounce of pouder of gaules, mix
them well together, then straine them through a linnen cloath into a cleane
pot, then draw the paper through the water , and the writing will be blacke,
as if it had ben written with inke.
To take Inke out of paper or parchment
Take Colofoniam, which is called pixgraecum, beat it small, and cast it on the
paper that is written, then wet a cloath, and lay it on the colofoniam, upon
the cloath lay some fresh horse dung. and upon that set a smooth tile stone,
then if it be in winter let it stand a whole night, but if it be summer, let it
stand but from morning until nine of the clocke.
Otherwise
Take Salarmoniacke and alum, still it in a limbeck, and with this water wet
the writing and it will goe out.
How to grave in yron and steel, or in other mettals with strong water
For as much as that every man in this our age, is given to write, learne, and
practise all manner of arts, I am of opinion it will not be unprofitable unto
such as are desirous to learn, if I set somewhat before them that may teach
them to write letters, and grave any other thing in steele, yron, or other
mettals, which I willingly present unto them, although it be but a small
matter, if it be profitable unto them, I wish them to use it.
Take two parts of verdigreece, one part of common salt, beat it in a morter,
put thereto sharpe vineger, and when you will grave, anoint your plate first
with red lead tempered with linseed oile, let it drie, this substance lay upon
the plate, and the warmer the place is, when it lieth, the sooner it wil eat in,
and when it is drie, take away the pouder, and make the plate cleane againe.
Or take two parts victriall, one third part Salarmoniack, grind it togither
upon a stone with wine, and lay it on as aforesaid, but lay it cold upon the
place where you grave, and set it in a celler four of five houres.
Another way to grave with water
Take verdigreece, Mercurie, sublimated victriall, and alum, of the one as
much as the other, beat them all to pouder, put them into a glasse, let them
stand so half a day, and stir it often about, then lay wax mingled with
linseed oile, or red lead with linseed oile, and write in it that you mean to
grave, then put the water upon it, and let it remaine so halfe a day, if you
wil have it very deepe, then let it stand longer, if you will grave any other
worke as images, etc.
Then lay the wax upon the yron or steele very thinly on, and draw what you
will therein with your instrument, that it may touch the mettal, then put
water into the strokes, and it wil be graven.
Another way, but more piercing
Take one ounce of verdigreece, half an ounce of Alum plumosum, halfe an
ounce of Salarmoniack, halfe an ounce of Tartarum, halfe an ounce of
victrial, and half an ounce of common salt, all beaten to pouder, mingle them
together, and pour strong vineger unto them, let them stand one houre, and
when you wil grave, write upon the yron or steele with linseed oile, and red
lead, and let it drie, then heat the water aforesaid in a leaded pan, and let it
stand on the fire, and hold the yron or steel over the pan, poure the hote
water upon it with a spoon, and let it run again into the pan, which doe for
the space of a quarter of an houre, then rub it off with ashes or unsleact
lime, but be sure that the places you will eat into be all well covered with red
lead.
To colour quils and parchment of divers colors
Take the quils, and cut away the fethers, and rub them wel with a wollen
cloath, that the skin go clean off, that the quil may be smooth, which must
alwaies be done before you die them, cut off a little of the end of the quil
that the colour may enter into them, lay them in alum water, for halfe a day,
take them out and drie them, then die them, when they are died, as I wil
teach you, let them be wel dried, and strike them over with a cloath
betweene two fingers, then stick them in a bord that is full of holes, and let
every one have a space betweene it, that they touch not together, and drie
them in the aire.
To die quils greene
Take two parts verdigreece, a third part Salarmoniacke, grind them well
together, steepe them in strong vineger, and put the quils into it, and cover
them close, let them lie therein till they be green as you desire to have
them: you may die likewise bones and wood in the same manner, lay the
quils, wood, or bones, in a leaded pot, poure vineger upon them, wherein
Greekish green is mixed, cover it, and set it seven daies or more under
warm horse dung. You may also temper verdigreece with vineger, till it bee
somewhat drie, put the quils into it, let them lie long therein, then take
them out, and put them in warm horse dung, and let them continue therein
eighteene daies together: you may die red quils in that sort and make them
greene, also take strong vineger, put it in a copper pot, or kettle, put
verdigreece into it, let it stand til it be green, put the quils into it, and let
them lie til they be green.
Red quils
Seeth them in Brasil, as before you are taught, baving first laid them in alum
water.
Yellow quils
Seeth them in yellow colour, as before you are taught what you shall do with
the barke of aple trees.
Blacke quils
Seeth beaten gaules in strong vineger, lay the quils in it, and let them seeth
likewise, then lay them in the white of egs, and put unto them the green pils
of walnuts, and let them seeth all together.
To colour parchment and velim of divers colors
Take as much parchment or velim as you will, and fasten it at the corners
and sides with nailes unto a bord, with the smooth side outwards, annoint it
then with what colour you will, be it yellow, blew, red or black, such as you
find set down in this booke, let it drie well, then stroke it over, and let it drie
in a place, where no dust is stirring.
FINIS.
Glossary
A
Aloe epaticum: Also, hepatic aloes. From East Indies originally. Reddish
brown or liver color; powder is of a dull yellow color.
Alum: Typically, potassium aluminum sulphate (K2SO4.Al2[SO4]3.24H2O).
Alum plumosum: Plumose alum, or Plume alum. A kind of natural alum,
composed of a sort of threads, or fibres, resembling feathers; whence its
name; artificially produced by treating clay tobacco pipes with sulfuric acid
to produce crystals; not asbestos.
Aurum musicum: Also, Aurum mosaicum, musitum, musivum, purpurina,
porporina; mosaic gold. Stannic sulphide (SnS2).
Argentum musicum: Mosaic silver.
Ashes of Copper: Cuprous oxide (Cu2O)
Auripigmentum: Also, orpiment, opiment. Arsenic trisulfide (AS2S3).
B
Blew heidleber: Bilberry, whortleberry, huckleberry.
Brasill: Brazil wood. A natural dye from the wood of Caesalpina braziliensis.
(C16H12O5).
Brimstone: Sulfur (S).
C
Colofoniam: Colophony; a resinous substance from distillation of light oil
from turpentine.
Conterfein: Metallic zinc (Zn).
G
Gauls: Oak galls.
Gaule of Eeles: Gall of eels, also, Bile yellow; bile from the gall bladder of
eels; gall stones.
Gineper: Juniper.
I
Indicum: Indigo; a plant dye prepared from the fermented leaves of the
plant, Indigofera tinctoria.
L
Limbeck: Alembic; a glass or pottery vessel used to distill or reduce liquids
over heat, consisting of a body/cucurbit/matrass, a head or capital, a pipe,
and a receiver.
Luttum: Lute, typically of clay, to form a seal.
O
Oxe gaule: Ox gall; prepared liquid from a bovine gall bladder, used as a
surfactant, and as a coloring agent.
P
Pix graecum: Also, pica greca. Greek pitch.
Pomestone: Pumice stone.
Q
Quick silver: Mercury (Hg).
R
Red lead: White lead or litharge heated for some hours to approx. 480 °C
(Pb3O4).
S
Salarmoniacke: Sal Ammoniac, (also Sal Armoniac, Salt Armoniack);
ammonium chloride (NH4CL).
W
Strong wine: Brandy.
U
Unsleact lime: Unslaked lime.
V
Verdigreece: Verdigris (verdegrise, vert de grise), basic copper acetate
(Cu(C2H3O2)2 . 2Cu(OH)2).
Victriall: Vitriol; typically ferrous sulphate, also known as Green vitriol
(FeSO4).
Blue vitriol, blue copperas; copper sulphate (CuSO4.5H2O).
W
White vitriol; zinc sulphate (ZnSO4).
White lead: Basic lead carbonate (Pb(CO3)2 . Pb(OH)2).
Literature
Andes, Louis Edgar and Stocks, H.B. Oil colours and Printers' Inks. London: Scott, Greenwood & Son, 1918.
Bemiss, Elijah. The Dyer's Companion. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1973 (originally, 1815).
Bersch, Josef. The Manufacture of Earth Colours. London: Scott, Greenwood & Son, 1921.
Borradaile, Viola & Rosamund. The Strasburg Manuscript. New York: Transatlantic Arts, 1966.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Edinburgh: A. Bell and C. MacFarquhar, 1771.
Edelstein, Sidney M. and Borghetty, Hector C. The Plictho. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press, 1969.
Ross, Janet L. "A Note on the Use of Mosaic Gold." Studies in Conservation 18 (1973): 174-176.
Eklund, Jon. The Incompleat Chymist. City of Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1975.
Faithorne, William. The Art of Graveing and Etching. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970 (originally 1662).
Flood, W.E. The Dictionary of Chemical Names. New York: Philosophical Library, 1963.
Gettens, Rutherford J. and Stout, George L. Painting Material: A Short Encyclopaedia. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., 1942.
Gettens, Rutherford J. and Fitzhugh, Elisabeth W. "Azurite and Blue Verditer." Studies in Conservation 11 (1966) 54.
Grieve, Mrs. M. A Modern Herbal. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1971 (originally 1931).
Hawthorne, John G. and Smith, Cyril Stanley. Theophilus: On Divers Arts.
New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1979 (originally 1963).
Hiler, Hilaire. Notes on the Technique of Painting. New York: Oxford University Press, 1934.
Hind, Arthur M. A History of Engraving & Etching. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1963 (originally 1923).
Hoover, Herbert Clark and Lou Henry. Georgius Agricola: De Re Metallica. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1950.
Levy, Martin. "Mediaeval Arabic Bookmaking and its Relation to Early Chemistry and Pharmacology." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series 52, pt. 4 (1962).
Lumsden, E.S. The Art of Etching. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1962 (originally 1924).
Mayer, Ralph. The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques. New York: The Viking Press, 1945.
Merrifield, M.P. Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting. London: John Murray, 1849.
Miller, Dorothy. Indigo from Seed to Dye. Aptos, California: Indigo Press, 1984.
McKerrow, Ronald B. An Introduction to Bibliography. London: Oxford University Press, 1948.
Parker, M. The Arcana of Arts and Sciences. Washington, Pennsylvania: J. Grayson, 1824.
Patterson, Austin M. A German-English Dictionary for Chemists. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1935.
Postlethwayt, Malachy. The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. London: John & Paul Knapton, 1755.
Repository of Arts and Sciences. Edingurgh: Peter Brown, 1838
Scientific American Cyclopedia of Formulas. New York: Munn & Co., Inc., 1936
Smith, Cyril Stanley and Hawthorne, John G. "Mappae Clavicula." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series 64, pr.4 [1974].
Spon, Ernest. Workshop Receipts. New York: E. & F.N. Spon, 1888.
Thompson, D.V. "De Coloribus." Technical Studies III (1935) 139.
Thompson D. V. The Materials of Medieval Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936.
Tomlinson, Charles. Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts. London: Vitrue & Co., 1866.
Ure, Andrew. A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1858.
Watrous, James. The Craft of Old-Master Drawings. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1957.
Wood, George B. and Bache, Franklin. The Dispensatory of the United States of America. Philadelphia: 1847.
Wolfe, Richard J. Marbled Paper. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990.
Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab.
7549 N. Fenwick
Portland, OR 97217, USA
503/735-3942 (voice/fax)
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~tc
http://irongallink.org/igi_indexbe74.html
From: Manuscript Inks by Jack C. Thompson © 1996 The Caber Press
A Booke of Secrets
A Booke of Secrets is a 1596 translation of a Dutch edition (which itself may have been translated from a 1531 German text) that contains a wonderful collection of ink recipes. These include iron gall ink recipes formulated for paper and parchment, and recipes for making different colored inks. In addition there are instructions for etching in metal and coloring quill pens. The text concludes with a technical glossary and a list of source literature. A Booke of Secrets was published in 1995 by The Caber Press in Manuscript Inks. This publication also contains instructions for making iron sulfate (ferrous sulfate/copperas/green vitriol) and iron gall ink, and includes a text on the manufacture of carbon ink sticks by Claes G. Lindblad. Manuscript Inks can be purchased by contacting Jack Thompson. He also sells sample sets of various iron gall inks. This text is a good example of a type of source used by art historians to research historic artist techniques. You might find it helpful to refer to Source Reserach which illustrates the difficulties in interpreting these sources.
Hundreds of recipes for iron gall ink have been published over the centuries. The sheer variety and number of these recipes testify to the widespread use of iron gall ink and its primary importance to our literary and artistic traditions. Artists and scribes, domestics and entrepreneurs each concocted their own formula to suit their particular needs. Interest in making historic inks has increased in the last several years, due in large part to the efforts of a few ink enthusiasts who have shared their
vast knowledge and experience on the subject. This website is an effort to continue this dialogue, by sharing information about iron gall ink and promoting an appreciation for its unique place in history. It is surprisingly easy to make iron gall ink - the earliest recipes are often the simplest - and the ingredients are inexpensive and readily available.
Foreword
The original copy of the text which follows is owned by the Yale Center for British Art and the editor appreciates the good offices of Elisabeth Fairman in making it available for this publication. After reading a photocopy of the text, I thought it would be worthwhile to reproduce the text with a technical glossary to help explain some of the more obscure terms. The term, conterfein, was located in only one source; Hoover's translation of De Re Metallica. "Well leaded" has been taken to mean "glazed," given that most recipes for early glazing compounds include lead in their formulae. The original text was black letter, with paragraph headings in a roman font. Aside from changing the black letter to a more legible font, the text is, for the most part, unchanged from the original; "u" has been replaced with "v" where appropriate in modern usage (i.e., "conuenient" is now "convenient," etc.). One spelling error has been corrected ("tino" is "into") and a missing word has been supplied: "To keepe that neither Mise nor [moths] eat or fret the paper...."
Secreta, or books of secrets, have been a mainstay of scholarship and research for a very long time; the tradition continues today in the notes which students make in class, in a lab, and in the library. In this, they follow a very old tradition; accurate information mingled with folklore and opinion. The recipe for a gold color, on p. 9, is a goo example. The reference to Michaelmas day [29 September] suggests an English origin for that recipe, while the reference to Saint Laurance day [10 August] suggests a French origin. The Dutch work which was translated into English was entitled: Ettliche Künste, auff mancherley Weisz Dinten und allerhand Faben zu bereyten; essentially the same as: Artliche kunste mancherley weyse Dinten und aller hand farben zubereyten, which was published in Nuremberg, in 1531. Neither the Dutch nor the German texts have been compared with the English translation, but it would seem that they are, more or less, the same.
[editor's note: the original Dutch A bouck of wondre is from 1513. The title given above for the Dutch book is German and the date later than the Dutch version, suggesting that the German was a translation of the Dutch, and the English a later translation.]
I am indebted to David Meesters, of Amsterdam, for providing information about aloe epaticum, via internet.
Jack C. Thompson
Portland, Oregon
August, 1995
A Booke of secrets
And first to make inke in divers maners
It is first to bee understood that if you wil make a great quantitie of Inke
together, you must encrease the waight, and measure, according to the
proportion you meane to make, as for example, if you will make ten quarts
of Inke, then take foure quarts of water, and sixe quarts of vineger and
wine, that is, three of each sort, which together with the water make ten
quarts, and so must you doe with other quantities, either more or lesse. The
like must you doe in the waight of your other stuffe that belongeth
thereunto, as for a pint of water, six ounces of gaule, foure ounces of
victriall, and foure ounces of gum, and if you take foure quarts of water
(which is eight pints) if you give to every pint his proportion, then
multiplying either by sixe they make fortie eight, so many ounces of gaule
must you put to ten quarts, mixed as afore said with wine, vineger, and
water, and of victrial and gum, of each xxxii ounces, according to the first
proportion, and so must you observe your quantities, of waight and measure
in each proportion, as you are minded to encrease the same, as in this
treatise you shall read.
To make Inke to write upon paper
Take halfe a pint of water, a pint wanting a quarter of wine, and as much
vineger, which being mixed together make a quart and a quarter of a pint
more, then take six ounces of gauls beaten into small pouder, and sifted
through a sive, put this pouder into a pot by it selfe, and poure halfe the
water, wine and vineger into it, take likewise foure ounces of victriall, and
beat it into pouder, and put it also in a pot by itselfe, whereinto put a
quarter of the wine, water, and vineger that remaineth, and to the other
quarter, put foure ounces of gum Arabike beaten to a pouder, that done,
cover the three pots close, and let them stand three or foure daies together,
stirring them every day three or foure times, on the first day set the pot
with the gauls on the fire, and when it begins to seeth, stir it about till it be
throughly warme, then straine it through a cloath into another pot, and mixe
it with the other two pots. stirring them well together, and being covered,
then let it stand three daies, till thou meanest to use it, on the fourth day,
when it is setled, poure it out, and it wil be good inke. If there remaine any
dregs behind poure some raine water (that hath stand long in a tub or
vessell) into it, for the older the water is, the better it is, and keepe that
untill you make more inke, so it is better then clean water.
To make Inke for parchment
Make it in all points like to the inke aforesaid, only take a pint of water, and
of vineger and wine a pint more, that is, of each halfe a pint.
Another sort of Inke
Take a quart of cleare water, and put it in a glasse, put into it thirteene
ounces beaten victriall, let it stand three daies, and stir it three or foure
times every day, then take thirteene ounces of beaten gaules, and put them
into a new earthern pot, that is wel leaded, poure into them a quart of
cleane water, that done, set it on the fire, and let it seeth till it consumeth
about a finger deepe, but suffer it not to seeth so fast that it seeth over the
pots brim, then strain it through a wollen cloath, into another pot, that is
leaded, poure into the cloath a cup full of good vineger, and strain it through
likewise, that done, if there remaineth anything in the cloath, cast it away,
then put into the matter, foure or five ounces of beaten gum, and stir them
well together, then again straine them through a cleane wollen cloath, and
poure into a cup full of good vineger, and straine it through the cloath, and
let it stand till it be coole, then put it into a straight necked glasse, stop both
the glasses well, til you have occasion to use them, then take of each water
a little quantitie, and mix them together, so have you good inke.
Another of the same sort, but easie to make
Take the beaten gauls, and put them in the water, doe the like with the
victriall in a pot by it selfe, let those two waters stand, and when you have
cause to use inke, poure out of each pot a like quantitie, and it will be
blacke, then put into it a little beaten gum, and it will bee good inke.
Another
Take a quart of strong wine, put it into a new pot, and set it on a soft fire till
it be hote, but let it not seeth, then put into it foure ounces of gauls, two
ounces and a halfe of gum Arabike,and two ounces of victriall, al beaten into
smal pouder, and sifted through a sive, stirre it with a wooden stic
To make coloured inks
Of red colour, and first of Brasill
You must take care when you seeth Brasill, that you do it when the element
is clear, without clouds, raine, or wind, otherwise it will not be good, you
must make it thus:
Take quicklime, poure raine water upon it, let it stand all night, in the
morning poure the water softly from the lime, or straine it through a cloath,
and for a quart of water, take an ounce of Brasill, let it seeth till it be halfe
consumed, then put into it one ounce of beaten alum, one ounce of gum
Arabike, two ounces of gum of a Cheritree, or else two ounces of cleane
glue, straine it from the wood: you may likewise put into it some chalke
beaten to pouder.
To seeth Brasill another way
To an ounce of Brasill, take the third part of a quart of beere, wine, or
vineger, put it in a new pot, let it stand a night, in the morning set it on the
fire and let it seeth till it be halfe consumed, then for every ounce of Brasill,
take two pennyworth of alum, beaten to pouder, and as much beaten gum
Arabike, stir them wel together, and let them seeth againe but if you desire
to have it somewhat darke, then scrape a little chalke into it: when it
seeteth, let it not seeth over the pot, and being cold, strain it through a
cloath, and put it into a glasse well stopped.
Another red colour
Mingle salt and honny together in a bason, let it stand eight daies, then
seeth it, and it will be a red colour.
Purple colour
Take two pound of blew heidleber, two ounces of alum, one ounce of ashes
of copper, which you may have at the brasiers, a pint of water, put them into
a ketle, let it seeth till it consume two fingers deepe, when it is cold, straine
it through a clout, in a cleane glasse or pot, let it stand a while, then straine
it into another pot, and let it stand till it be thicke enough.
To make Rosin
Take strong vinegar, or wine, and put pouder of alum therein, when the alum
is dissolved, then make a strong and thicke lee with quickelime, and take
foure times as much Brasill as your alum waieth, put it in a clout, and hang
it in the lee, and let it stand a day and a night, then straine it, and hang the
Brasill again in the lee, and let it stand as long as it did the first time, which
doe in like manner three or foure times, when you have done so let it stand
and drie, and it is perfect.
Another Rosin
Take two parts red lead, one part white lead, and mingle them together, or
take Auripigmentum and red lead, of each a like quantitie, and mingle them
together.
Fire colour
Take sout of a chimney, and a little alum, let them boile, then take gineper,
granded with water, and temper it together, with alum and gum Arabike.
Tawny colour
Take blacking, and mingle it with red lead and gum Arabike.
Yellow colour
Take hauthorne berries, gather them eight daies after Saint Laurence day,
bruse them and put a little beaten alum unto them, stirre them well
together, and let them stand one night, and it will be a faire yellow.
Another good yellow
Take the barke of a tree, cut off the outside, and throw it away, cut the rest
in small peeces, and poure water unto them, let them seeth two or three
times, then put pouder of alum into it, stirre them well together, and let
them seeth againe.
Another yellow
Mix saffron with the yolke of an eg, and it maketh a faire shining colour.
Otherwise.
Put saffron and alum into a clout, and put vineger into it, and strain it out:
or take saffron, the yolke of an eg, gum Arabike and alum, and mix them
together.
Auripigmentum
Take gaule of Eeles, or of other great fishes, or oxe gaule, put some vineger
to it, and a little chalke, and make a paste thereof.
Greene colour
Take the blacke berries that grow on the hauthorne tree, and gather them
eight daies after Michaelmas day, bruse them, poure water into them, and
put therein a little beaten alum, stir them well together, and let them stand
two daies and a night, and it will be good greene.
A faire greene colour
Take honie, put a little quantitie of vineger more then the honie is, into it,
mingle it well in a leaded or a copper pot, stop it well, and set it twelve daies
under another pot, and put thereto a little chalke.
Also take copper plates, put them in a copper pot, and put stilled vineger to
them, set them in a warm place, till the vineger become blew, then put it
into another leaded pot, poure vineger into it againe, let it stand so till it
become blew, this doe so many times, till you thinke you have inough, then
let it stand till it be thick.
To temper or prepare Verdigreece
Grind it with wine, and put two or three drops of honny to it.
To make good greene
Take copper plates, let them lie six months in vineger in a warme place, then
take them out, and drie them in the sun, and the flower you find upon the
plates, scrape it of, for that is the colour.
Blew colour
Grind chalke with the juice of the elder berries, straine it through a clout,
put a little alum water unto it, let it drie, and keep it til you need.
In the same sort you may make colour of the blew corne flowers. Also the
juice of the blew corn flowers alone, with alum and gum tempered together,
is a good blew.
Also mulberies boiled with alum.
Also take blew corn flowers that are not too much blowne, and gather them
in a morning before the sun riseth, plucke the blew leafe, and let not any of
the white come among them, and put them into a copper kettle, and hang it
in seething water, till they be drie, keepe them in a glasse well covered.
When you wil make colour of them, then take some of the blew leaves, and
put them into a drinking glasse, poure water into them, till it be thicke like
dowe, let it stand covered twelve houres, then presse the liquor through a
cloath into another glasse, and put a little glue into it, and set it in a warme
place, or else in whote water, untill it bee drie and thicke to use.
To make Azure
Take one ounce of white lead, nine ounces of Indicum, pour good vineger
unto it, put them in a leaded dish, let them seeth well, and that which
swimmeth on the top is the colour.
Or take two parts of chalk made of egshels, one part of Verdigreece, one
part of Salarmoniacke, mingle them together with strong vineger, and put
them in a new pot, stop it well, that no aire issue forth, set it in a warme
place for a month long, and it will be Azure.
To temper or prepare Azure
Wash it wel in cleane water, and that swimmeth on the top, cast it away, and
that which lieth in the bottome, is good, doe so three or four times one after
another, and let the water bee cleane poured from it, then take white of egs
that are well beaten, put thereto a little beaten gum Arabike, and let it stand
till the gum is dissolved, then put the Azure into it, and mingle them well
together, straine it through a linnen cloath into an inkehorne, and use it
when you will.
A faire blew
Grind the Azure with faire water very well upon a stone, then put it in a
horne or shell, and pour water theron, stir them wel together, then let them
stand half a day, then pour out the water, and take the gaule of a great fish,
and grind it with gum and the white of egs, and use it when you thinke
good.
White colour
To write with chalke out of a pen upon blacke tables or paper.
Grind quicklime, egshels, and chalke, together with the milke of a goat.
To make chalke of egshels
Take egshels, and let them lie three daies in vineger, then wash them well in
faire water, drie them in the sun, and beat them to pouder, then grind them
upon a stone.
A good white colour
Take white glasse wel beaten to pouder, put thereto some brimstone in
pouder, and keep it in a pot wel covered, set it upon a soft fire, til it be red
hote, then let it coole, and grind it on a stone.
Gold colours
To Make Aurum Musicum
Take one ounce of Salarmoniack, one ounce of quick silver, one ounce of
Conterfein, halfe an ounce of brimstone, bruse the brimstone, set it on the
fire, but let it not be over hote least it burneth, or become black, then take
the Salarmoniack, and the quick silver, being in pouder, mix them wel
together, then mingle them with the brimstone, stir them well and quickly
with a sticke, till the brimstone becommeth hard, then let it cool, grind it on
a stone, and put it in a glasse with a long neck wel stopped with luttum, and
set it in a pan with ashes, make a fire under it, and let it stand halfe a day,
in such maner, not over hote, till a yellow smoke riseth upon it, and when
the yellow smoke is gone, then it is prepared.
Otherwise
Take an ounce of tin, melt it in a pot, put into it half an ounce of Tartarum,
and one ounce of quick silver, stir them together, till it bee hard, and
congealed into a cake, then grind it well upon a stone, put to it one ounce of
beaten Salarmoniack, mix them wel together, then melt one ounce of
brimstone, but make it not too hote, poure the ground pouder into it, stirre
it well untill it bee hard, let it coole, and doe as before is said.
You must temper it thus
Grind it well, wash it wel in clean water out of one mussell shell into another,
till it bee very cleane, then put it into a pewter pot, put some gum water
therein, stir it about, and write therwith, let it drie, and polish it.
Argentum Musicum
Melt an ounce of Tin, and put thereto an ounce of Tartarum, an ounce of
quick silver, stirre it well til it be cold, beat it in a morter, then grind it on a
stone, temper it with alum water, and write therewith, then polish it.
To write a gold colour
Take a new laid hens eg, make a hole at the one end of it, and let the
substance out, then take the yolk of an eg, without the white, and foure
times as much in quantity of quick silver, grind them well together, stop the
hole of the egshell with chalke and the white of an eg, then lay it under a
hen that sitteth with six egs more, let her sit upon it three weekes, then
breake it up and write therewith, some say it must bee laid under three
several hens, and under each hen three weekes.
To write with gold out of a pensill
Take hony and salt a like quantity, grind them wel, put to it a leaf of gold
with a little white of an eg, put it into a mussell shel, and let it purifie,
temper it with gum water, and write therewith, let it drie, and polish it with a
tooth.
Or grind saltstone well with the white of an eg, put into it a leafe or two of
gold, and write therewith as before.
Or grind a leaf of silver or gold very smal with gum water, and wash it in a
mussell shel as aforesaid.
To write all mettals out of the pen
Grind cristall well, temper it with gum water, or the white of an eg, write
with it, then let it drie, then take the mettal, which you wil, and rub it upon
the letters writen, till the letter bee well coloured with the color of the
mettall, then polish it with a tooth.
Or take cristall and pomestone, both ground very small, put thereto a little
verdigreece, beaten likewise to pouder, and put them all into a leaded
pipkin, set it upon a soft fire, but let it not bee too hote, let it not stand so
long on the fire, that it becommeth as blacke as a coale, then grind it on a
stone, temper it with gum water, write with it as aforesaid.
A good gold colour
Take linseed oile, put into it a little Aloe Epaticum, and alum, let them seeth
well in a leaden pot.
To lay gold upon anything
Take red lead, temper it with linseed oile, write with it, and lay gold upon it,
so let it drie, and polish it.
Or lay gum Arabike in vineger, so long til it wareth white, take it out and put
it into the white of egs, till it melteth, write w ith it, when it is almost drie,
lay the gold upon it, then let it stand one night, and polish it.
To lay gold upon glasse
Grind chalke, and red lead in like qantity together, with linseed oile, lay it on,
when it is almost drie, lay your gold upon it, and being well dried, polish it.
End of the colours.
Another
Take an ounce of beaten gaule, three or four ounces of gum Arabicke, put
them together in a pot with reine water, and when the gum is almost
consumed, strain it through a cloath, and put into it almost halfe a cup of
victriall beaten to pouder.
Another
Take a pint of beere, put into it an ounce of gaules beaten to pouder, let it
seeth till it seeme somewhat red, then put to it three quarters of an ounce
of greene victriall, in small pouder, and let it seeth againe, when you take it
off the fire, cast into it three quarters of an ounce of gum and a small peece
of alum, both in pouder, and stir them all together till it be cold.
Another
Take two handfull of gauls, cut each gaule either into three or four peeces,
poure into them a pint of beere or wine, which you wil then let it stand eight
houres, straine it from the gaules, and put victriall therein, and to the
victriall a third part of gum, set it on the fire to warm, but let it not seeth,
and it will be good inke: and of those gaules you may make inke foure or
five times more.
To make inke upon a suddaine, to serve in an extremetie
Take a wax candle, and light it, hold it under a cleane bason or a
candlesticke, till the smoke of the candle hangeth thereon, then put a little
warme gum water into it, which tempered together will be good inke.
To keepe Inke that it sinketh not into the paper neither that it come
not off and that moths nor mise hurt not the paper
Take the shels of hazell nuts, and put them into the inke, and it will not sinke
through the paper. And that it may not come off, put a little salt into it. To
keepe that Mise nor eat or fret the paper, put a little wormwood water into
the inke.
To write without inke, that it may not be seen, unlesse the paper be
wet with water
Take pouder of victriall, and put it into a cleane inkehorne, put a little cleane
water to it when the victriall is dissolved, write with it either upon paper or
parchment, and let it drie, and it cannot bee read: when you will read it take
halfe a pint of water, and put thereto an ounce of pouder of gaules, mix
them well together, then straine them through a linnen cloath into a cleane
pot, then draw the paper through the water , and the writing will be blacke,
as if it had ben written with inke.
To take Inke out of paper or parchment
Take Colofoniam, which is called pixgraecum, beat it small, and cast it on the
paper that is written, then wet a cloath, and lay it on the colofoniam, upon
the cloath lay some fresh horse dung. and upon that set a smooth tile stone,
then if it be in winter let it stand a whole night, but if it be summer, let it
stand but from morning until nine of the clocke.
Otherwise
Take Salarmoniacke and alum, still it in a limbeck, and with this water wet
the writing and it will goe out.
How to grave in yron and steel, or in other mettals with strong water
For as much as that every man in this our age, is given to write, learne, and
practise all manner of arts, I am of opinion it will not be unprofitable unto
such as are desirous to learn, if I set somewhat before them that may teach
them to write letters, and grave any other thing in steele, yron, or other
mettals, which I willingly present unto them, although it be but a small
matter, if it be profitable unto them, I wish them to use it.
Take two parts of verdigreece, one part of common salt, beat it in a morter,
put thereto sharpe vineger, and when you will grave, anoint your plate first
with red lead tempered with linseed oile, let it drie, this substance lay upon
the plate, and the warmer the place is, when it lieth, the sooner it wil eat in,
and when it is drie, take away the pouder, and make the plate cleane againe.
Or take two parts victriall, one third part Salarmoniack, grind it togither
upon a stone with wine, and lay it on as aforesaid, but lay it cold upon the
place where you grave, and set it in a celler four of five houres.
Another way to grave with water
Take verdigreece, Mercurie, sublimated victriall, and alum, of the one as
much as the other, beat them all to pouder, put them into a glasse, let them
stand so half a day, and stir it often about, then lay wax mingled with
linseed oile, or red lead with linseed oile, and write in it that you mean to
grave, then put the water upon it, and let it remaine so halfe a day, if you
wil have it very deepe, then let it stand longer, if you will grave any other
worke as images, etc.
Then lay the wax upon the yron or steele very thinly on, and draw what you
will therein with your instrument, that it may touch the mettal, then put
water into the strokes, and it wil be graven.
Another way, but more piercing
Take one ounce of verdigreece, half an ounce of Alum plumosum, halfe an
ounce of Salarmoniack, halfe an ounce of Tartarum, halfe an ounce of
victrial, and half an ounce of common salt, all beaten to pouder, mingle them
together, and pour strong vineger unto them, let them stand one houre, and
when you wil grave, write upon the yron or steele with linseed oile, and red
lead, and let it drie, then heat the water aforesaid in a leaded pan, and let it
stand on the fire, and hold the yron or steel over the pan, poure the hote
water upon it with a spoon, and let it run again into the pan, which doe for
the space of a quarter of an houre, then rub it off with ashes or unsleact
lime, but be sure that the places you will eat into be all well covered with red
lead.
To colour quils and parchment of divers colors
Take the quils, and cut away the fethers, and rub them wel with a wollen
cloath, that the skin go clean off, that the quil may be smooth, which must
alwaies be done before you die them, cut off a little of the end of the quil
that the colour may enter into them, lay them in alum water, for halfe a day,
take them out and drie them, then die them, when they are died, as I wil
teach you, let them be wel dried, and strike them over with a cloath
betweene two fingers, then stick them in a bord that is full of holes, and let
every one have a space betweene it, that they touch not together, and drie
them in the aire.
To die quils greene
Take two parts verdigreece, a third part Salarmoniacke, grind them well
together, steepe them in strong vineger, and put the quils into it, and cover
them close, let them lie therein till they be green as you desire to have
them: you may die likewise bones and wood in the same manner, lay the
quils, wood, or bones, in a leaded pot, poure vineger upon them, wherein
Greekish green is mixed, cover it, and set it seven daies or more under
warm horse dung. You may also temper verdigreece with vineger, till it bee
somewhat drie, put the quils into it, let them lie long therein, then take
them out, and put them in warm horse dung, and let them continue therein
eighteene daies together: you may die red quils in that sort and make them
greene, also take strong vineger, put it in a copper pot, or kettle, put
verdigreece into it, let it stand til it be green, put the quils into it, and let
them lie til they be green.
Red quils
Seeth them in Brasil, as before you are taught, baving first laid them in alum
water.
Yellow quils
Seeth them in yellow colour, as before you are taught what you shall do with
the barke of aple trees.
Blacke quils
Seeth beaten gaules in strong vineger, lay the quils in it, and let them seeth
likewise, then lay them in the white of egs, and put unto them the green pils
of walnuts, and let them seeth all together.
To colour parchment and velim of divers colors
Take as much parchment or velim as you will, and fasten it at the corners
and sides with nailes unto a bord, with the smooth side outwards, annoint it
then with what colour you will, be it yellow, blew, red or black, such as you
find set down in this booke, let it drie well, then stroke it over, and let it drie
in a place, where no dust is stirring.
FINIS.
Glossary
A
Aloe epaticum: Also, hepatic aloes. From East Indies originally. Reddish
brown or liver color; powder is of a dull yellow color.
Alum: Typically, potassium aluminum sulphate (K2SO4.Al2[SO4]3.24H2O).
Alum plumosum: Plumose alum, or Plume alum. A kind of natural alum,
composed of a sort of threads, or fibres, resembling feathers; whence its
name; artificially produced by treating clay tobacco pipes with sulfuric acid
to produce crystals; not asbestos.
Aurum musicum: Also, Aurum mosaicum, musitum, musivum, purpurina,
porporina; mosaic gold. Stannic sulphide (SnS2).
Argentum musicum: Mosaic silver.
Ashes of Copper: Cuprous oxide (Cu2O)
Auripigmentum: Also, orpiment, opiment. Arsenic trisulfide (AS2S3).
B
Blew heidleber: Bilberry, whortleberry, huckleberry.
Brasill: Brazil wood. A natural dye from the wood of Caesalpina braziliensis.
(C16H12O5).
Brimstone: Sulfur (S).
C
Colofoniam: Colophony; a resinous substance from distillation of light oil
from turpentine.
Conterfein: Metallic zinc (Zn).
G
Gauls: Oak galls.
Gaule of Eeles: Gall of eels, also, Bile yellow; bile from the gall bladder of
eels; gall stones.
Gineper: Juniper.
I
Indicum: Indigo; a plant dye prepared from the fermented leaves of the
plant, Indigofera tinctoria.
L
Limbeck: Alembic; a glass or pottery vessel used to distill or reduce liquids
over heat, consisting of a body/cucurbit/matrass, a head or capital, a pipe,
and a receiver.
Luttum: Lute, typically of clay, to form a seal.
O
Oxe gaule: Ox gall; prepared liquid from a bovine gall bladder, used as a
surfactant, and as a coloring agent.
P
Pix graecum: Also, pica greca. Greek pitch.
Pomestone: Pumice stone.
Q
Quick silver: Mercury (Hg).
R
Red lead: White lead or litharge heated for some hours to approx. 480 °C
(Pb3O4).
S
Salarmoniacke: Sal Ammoniac, (also Sal Armoniac, Salt Armoniack);
ammonium chloride (NH4CL).
W
Strong wine: Brandy.
U
Unsleact lime: Unslaked lime.
V
Verdigreece: Verdigris (verdegrise, vert de grise), basic copper acetate
(Cu(C2H3O2)2 . 2Cu(OH)2).
Victriall: Vitriol; typically ferrous sulphate, also known as Green vitriol
(FeSO4).
Blue vitriol, blue copperas; copper sulphate (CuSO4.5H2O).
W
White vitriol; zinc sulphate (ZnSO4).
White lead: Basic lead carbonate (Pb(CO3)2 . Pb(OH)2).
Literature
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Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab.
7549 N. Fenwick
Portland, OR 97217, USA
503/735-3942 (voice/fax)
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~tc
http://irongallink.org/igi_indexbe74.html
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