Researching Book About History Of Ink

[robedelstein]

Wow...Well, Mr. Bishop, clearly we're kindred spirits on this. Congrats on this book; I'm sure I'm trying to cover similar territory, and let's hope this rich topic supports at LEAST two books on the subject. I wish you luck.

[AAAndrew]

As I'm sure you'll include references to the ancient and continuous use of ink in China, I just thought I'd point out that we actually have some pretty old examples that have come from archeological as well as grave looting sources for ancient texts written in ink on bamboo strips as well as silk. (examples have been found that are over 2500 years old, older than mentioned in the wikipedia article on ink)

 

Writing with a brush and ink on strips of bamboo (remember, writing vertically) then binding the strips into a scroll seems to go back 4000 years in China, if not longer. Writing with ink on silk (and of course the long tradition of painting with ink on silk and paper) goes back at least to 2700 years ago.

 

An short synopsis: http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jun/66332.htm

 

Sounds like an interesting read. Best of luck!

[Steven Avery]

Hi,

Earlier in the thread we were discussing

 

Report on the different inks used in Codex Sinaiticus and assessment of their condition

Sara Mazzarino

http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/project/conservation_ink.aspx

 

And how Sinaiticus has never had any chemical testing.

Lots of interesting stuff on that page. Including
"26. Major ink corrosion (Quire 86 f.7r, BL f.307r d11)"

 

Where it looks like the ink corrosion is removing the colouring.
Which would be rather consistent with a colouring agent applied after, and over, the ink.

There were actually very world-class planned material tests for April, 2015 by BAM, a scientific lab in Berline. (For the part of SInaiticus that is in Leipzig.) However, they cancelled it after a little personnel shakeup (at the Leipzig University Library).

Keep in mind though that the 1844 Sinaiticus (10% .. this was taken to Leipzig and published as the Codex Frederico-Augustanus) and the 1859 Sinaiticus (90% of the original ms.) look very different. As if the 1859 larger section was subject to colouring and staining. In 1845 the whole ms was described as white parchment by a Russian named Uspensky. Things had changed by 1860.

=======================

This leads to a question. Most ancient parchment mss are quite yellow with age. Apparently every page. Vaticanus, Bezae, Alexandrinus, Washingtonianus. (Let us leave Sinaiticus aside, which is two distinct parts, with unusual provenanc, and we are trying to figure out its anomalies, without presuppositions.)

I'm told that the Temple Scroll came out white at first, and then yellowed. However, a papyrus scroll made of simply kept in a desert jar is a rather unique situation. By comparison, SInaiticus is conjectured to have had all sorts of use, corrections here and there, notes even in Arabic, unbindings and rebindings, in various centuries.

So where do we see white parchment mss early?
Best examples that you can give?

Thanks!

Steven

Edited December 15, 2015 by Steven Avery