IMC Leeds 2022 workshop: Bridging the Borders: Fifty Shades of Black (Ink)

Bridging the Borders: Fifty Shades of Black (Ink) - A Workshop

Medieval manuscripts are written with different black and brown ink types, which
usually vary between the scribes. Analysing different scribal hands is a basic tool in the
study of medieval texts, they are however strongly limited by what the human eye can
see. This workshop provides a hand-on introduction on how scholars can benefit from
a more profound understanding of inks.
Technical developments in the medieval production of such inks were rarely constrained
by borders or cultural divisions. Therefore, the content and formal characteristics of ink
recipes are mostly independent from the culture that created them and can be used to
explore how knowledge and techniques are transmitted, both within the same cultural
environments and from one culture to another.
This workshop aims to bring participants across another border which is often improperly
considered intimidating: the divide between Science and Humanities. Experimentation
is crucial in order to truly understand textual recipes from different manuscript cultures,
to fully appreciate which ingredients are needed and in which proportions, to assess
feasibility, and even to spot errors in the transmission process. Moreover, analytical
techniques are needed to identify the materials employed in inks and see how inks
used in manuscripts compare with their recipes. Using such techniques, scientific
methods can support scholars to differentiate hands or stages of production within the
same manuscript, or to compare and identify copies from a same scribe or scriptorium,
by discriminating among diverse ink typologies.
In the first part of this workshop, the tutors will investigate the nature of ink recipes
produced during medieval times from China to Europe, by different cultures and written
in different languages (Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, Italian), to
observe similarities and differences and bring attention to the issues and challenges
that those texts pose to the practical replication of their recipes. In the second part, the
participants will receive a practical demonstration of ink production and will look at the
raw ingredients used. Then, everyone will be invited to test ink samples on a variety
of supports (papyrus, parchment and papers) with various writing implements (brush,
reed pen, feather). Finally, a practical introduction to reflectography and the handson
use of the Dino Lite microscope will allow participants to try out their own inkdetection
by analysing known and unknown ink samples with the supplied equipment.
Participants are invited to bring examples from their own manuscripts.
The workshop is organised by the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written
Artefacts’ that follows a comparative approach for studying how the production of
written artefacts has shaped human societies and cultures, and how these in turn have
adapted written artefacts to their needs.