Materials and techniques of Islamic manuscripts

Abstract

Over 50 works on paper from Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Central Asia dated from the 13th to 19th centuries were examined and analyzed at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. Forty-six of these were detached folios, some of which had been removed from the same dispersed manuscript. Paintings and illuminations from five intact manuscripts were also examined and analyzed, although not all of the individual works were included. The study was undertaken to better understand the materials and techniques used to create paintings and illuminations from the Islamic World, with particular attention paid to the diversity of greens, blues and yellows present. The research aimed to determine the full range of colorants, the extent of pigment mixing and the various preparatory drawing materials. The issue of binding materials was also addressed, albeit in a preliminary way.

New Insights into Synthetic Copper Greens: The Search for Specific Signatures by Raman and Infrared Spectroscopy for Their Characterization in Medieval Artworks

“…These findings are in agreement with the characterization of basic copper chlorides in the 15th century Catalonia and the Crown of Aragon paintings (oil and tempera paintings), systematically studied by Salvadó et al [10,11]. They are also in agreement with what observed by Eremin et al in a recent study on Islamic manuscripts [12], in which certain shades of green only present atacamite.…”

“…We tested this variation because we know that many craft recipes have not been documented in written sources, but were part of an anonymous craft "savoir faire" that has been lost. It was very exciting to find that this kind of formulation was detected in works of art ranging from panel painting to medieval illuminations, and from Europe to Persia [10][11][12][13]. We consider that one of our main contributions lies in the integration of our knowledge on craft recipes that describe the manufacture and preparation of paint materials with the state-of-the-art research on the mechanisms of atmospheric corrosion of metals.…”

“…The weak bands at 2988 and 2941 cm −1 , common in spectra of acetates in general, correspond to the asymmetric and symmetric CH stretching modes, respectively [35]. In the fingerprint region, the main bands are: the strong stretching absorption of the COO − group at 1602 cm −1 ; the absorption at 1445 cm −1 assigned to CH 3 asymmetric bending, with a shoulder at 1421 cm −1 assigned to the symmetric stretching mode of the COO − group [11,12,27,35,36].…”

Manuscripts in the Making: Art and Science

“…Additional case studies include two articles published by separate research groups, one in France (Denoël et al [13]) and one in Austria (Frühmann et al [14]), discussing eighth-and ninth-century manuscripts from Carolingian scriptoria; the Emerson-White Book of Hours, whose late fifteenth-century Flemish illuminations were investigated by Mayer et al [15]; and a study of the materials used in other parts of manuscripts, such as the decoration of the sunk-panel binding of a Venetian 'Commissione Dogale' , reported by Rampazzo and Di Foggia [16]. A survey of the materials used in over 50 Islamic manuscripts, carried out by Knipe et al [17], significantly expands the geographic origin of the original material investigated and emphasises the importance of moving beyond the well-known Western European tradition of manuscript Finally, the complex mathematical methods used by Calatroni et al [18] for the digital 'restoration' and interpretation of manuscripts-and their provision of additional multi-media content linked to the published article-serve to bring cross-disciplinary research on medieval manuscripts fully into the digital era.…”

Five years of Heritage Science: from aborigine cave paintings to the Domesday book and Bayeux tapestry and to Dorothy’s ruby red slippers via van Gogh’s colours, Magritte’s missing quarters, and Qing calligraphy, with the sights, sounds, smells and taste of the past

“…There are few studies on paper reported which is an important medium over the centuries [19]. We have recently published a very substantive study of Islamic manuscripts [20]. South America is also on this list, with several primarily archaeometric studies [21].…”