IMC Leeds 2022 workshop: Bridging the Borders: Fifty Shades of Black (Ink)
Creators: name: Colini, Claudia
name: Bonnerot, Olivier
Publisher: name: Universität Hamburg
Year: 2023
Subjects: CSMC
UWA
Manuscript
Written Artefacts
Artefact Profiling
IMC
Leeds
Leeds University Library
Mobile Lab
X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF)
DinoLite USB Microscope
UV-VIS-NIR Reflectography
Parchment
Workshop
Inks
Ink Analysis
Ink making
Writing tools

description: <strong>Bridging the Borders: Fifty Shades of Black (Ink) - A Workshop</strong> Medieval manuscripts are written with different black and brown ink types, which<br> usually vary between the scribes. Analysing different scribal hands is a basic tool in the<br> study of medieval texts, they are however strongly limited by what the human eye can<br> see. This workshop provides a hand-on introduction on how scholars can benefit from<br> a more profound understanding of inks.<br> Technical developments in the medieval production of such inks were rarely constrained<br> by borders or cultural divisions. Therefore, the content and formal characteristics of ink<br> recipes are mostly independent from the culture that created them and can be used to<br> explore how knowledge and techniques are transmitted, both within the same cultural<br> environments and from one culture to another.<br> This workshop aims to bring participants across another border which is often improperly<br> considered intimidating: the divide between Science and Humanities. Experimentation<br> is crucial in order to truly understand textual recipes from different manuscript cultures,<br> to fully appreciate which ingredients are needed and in which proportions, to assess<br> feasibility, and even to spot errors in the transmission process. Moreover, analytical<br> techniques are needed to identify the materials employed in inks and see how inks<br> used in manuscripts compare with their recipes. Using such techniques, scientific<br> methods can support scholars to differentiate hands or stages of production within the<br> same manuscript, or to compare and identify copies from a same scribe or scriptorium,<br> by discriminating among diverse ink typologies.<br> In the first part of this workshop, the tutors will investigate the nature of ink recipes<br> produced during medieval times from China to Europe, by different cultures and written<br> in different languages (Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, Italian), to<br> observe similarities and differences and bring attention to the issues and challenges<br> that those texts pose to the practical replication of their recipes. In the second part, the<br> participants will receive a practical demonstration of ink production and will look at the<br> raw ingredients used. Then, everyone will be invited to test ink samples on a variety<br> of supports (papyrus, parchment and papers) with various writing implements (brush,<br> reed pen, feather). Finally, a practical introduction to reflectography and the handson<br> use of the Dino Lite microscope will allow participants to try out their own inkdetection<br> by analysing known and unknown ink samples with the supplied equipment.<br> Participants are invited to bring examples from their own manuscripts.<br> The workshop is organised by the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written<br> Artefacts’ that follows a comparative approach for studying how the production of<br> written artefacts has shaped human societies and cultures, and how these in turn have<br> adapted written artefacts to their needs.
description: The research for this workshop was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2176 'Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures', project no. 390893796. The research was conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg.