![]() ![]() This poem in the fifteenth-century Rushall Psalter is written in four different colours. Other ink colours could be made from organic or inorganic pigments. Red ink was made from vermillion (powdered mercuric sulphide) mixed with egg white and gum Arabic, or from brazilwood chips soaked in vinegar and mixed again with gum Arabic. Gall comes from ‘oak apples’ which are growths on the bark of oak trees caused by gall wasps laying their eggs there.īoth of these methods also needed gum Arabic (the desiccated sap of the acacia tree) to thicken them to make them suitable for the pens. Black ink was either made from carbon (charcoal or lamp-black) or a compound of iron and gall. There are various recipes surviving for making ink, in Latin and in Middle English, as well as other languages, so we can be reasonably certain how it was done. In this book, rubrication is used to show the lines spoken by 'Confessor' and 'Amans'.ĭetail from John Gower, ‘Confessio Amantis’, WLC/LM/8, f. Rubrication was used for marking chapter divisions, points of interest etc. Red was used for highlighting, known as rubrication (which comes from Latin and literally means ‘reddening’). There are two basic colours in most medieval writing: black (which has often faded to brown) and red. ![]() Wood pulp paper degrades much faster than rag pulp paper because of the acid chemicals present in wood, and in the bleaching process used to make the paper. Experts can use watermark evidence to identify paper manufacturers and estimate the date a particular sheet of paper was produced. The mould would be squeezed to extract the water from the paper, and in so doing, the chain lines and the watermark would leave an impression on the paper. The watermark shape, also made of wire, would be fixed into the mould. Then the pulp was spread in a mould, a wooden frame with wires up and down it. Until the eighteenth century most paper was made with textiles, by recycling cloth, rags and similar fibres, which were mashed and soaked down to a pulp. It can also be made consistently smooth across a sheet. Compared to parchment, it is easier to make to a regular size in appropriate quantities. Eventually, paper came to displace parchment for book manufacture, although parchment continued to be used for important documents such as title deeds into the twentieth century.įragment of English Life of St Zita, on paper, c.1450-1475, WLC/LM/37 The first paper mill in England was set up in 1495, meaning that previous stocks were imported from the Continent. English paper manuscripts written before 1380 are very rare. 121vĪlthough paper was first produced in China in the first century CE, its use in books only became common in the West from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The hair side often bears marks of the follicles, and can be quite yellow. The flesh side tends to be smoother and whiter.ĭetails of hair side (top) and flesh side (bottom), from book of French romances and fabliaux, WLC/LM/6, f. Vellum and parchment clearly have two sides. Many manuscripts have holes in the pages resulting from flaws in the parchment.ĭetail of flaw in parchment, from a breviary, WLC/LM/1, f. Even a large animal might not offer enough hide for several sheets, because of faults in the skin. A video by the Getty Museum shows the major steps in making a medieval manuscript, beginning with the preparation of parchment sheets. It was, however, time-consuming to prepare. The advantages of parchment as a writing medium in the Middle Ages were that it was very durable, and readily available. The biggest difference is that vellum is generally better quality than parchment. Medieval parchment was often made from sheep or goat skin, while vellum tended to be made from the skin of young animals (lambs or kids), but this was not always the case. It can be difficult to identify exactly which animal was used to make any particular writing surface. Parchment is an animal skin which has been treated to form a smooth surface to write on. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |