The Gutenberg Bibles:  Analysis of the Illuminations and Inks Using Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

The King George III copy of the Gutenberg Bible, held at the British Library, has been analyzed using Raman spectroscopy to determine the palette of pigments used in the illuminations on this work. The palette is found to comprise cinnabar/vermilion, lead tin yellow (type 1), carbon-based black, azurite, malachite, an organo-copper complex (a "verdigris"), calcium carbonate (chalk), gypsum, gold leaf, and basic lead carbonate ("lead white"). This is in agreement with contemporary descriptions of the pigments used for the illuminations. One pigment could not be identified, specifically the organic dark red/purple color used for the foliage. The palette of this copy of the Gutenberg Bible has been compared with those used for six other copies, held at Eton College and Lambeth Palace, England, the Bibliothèque Mazarine and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and the Niedersachsische Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek (SUB) Göttingen, Germany. The palettes are shown to be similar to one another, even though the styles of the primary illuminations differ. The two Gutenberg Bibles held in Germany, printed on vellum, have the more expensive palettes, which include lazurite. The SUB Göttingen copy has the most extensive palette with 16 pigment-related materials having been identified.

Identification of pigments and gemstones on the Tours Gospel: the early 9th century Carolingian palette

“…the 13th century Paris Bible known as the Lucka Bible (1267 AD) 5 , which is illuminated with azurite, orpiment, lazurite, lead white, malachite, minium, realgar and vermilion. Many of the much later Bibles such as the Gutenberg Bibles (1455 AD) include the above pigments but, in addition, lead tin yellow type I (Pb 2 SnO 4 ), chalk and gypsum may be present, 6 illustrating that palettes of later manuscripts are more diverse than those of earlier ones.…”

“…MS. 40618 (ca 920 AD), 4 a Paris Bible (1267 AD) 5 and various Gutenberg Bibles (1455 AD). 6 All these volumes have recently been subjected to Raman analysis of their pigments, and so comparisons of their palettes are now possible. The well-illuminated Tours Gospel is shown in this work to have a limited palette which notably does not include lapis lazuli.…”

Evidence for the degradation of an alloy pigment on an ancient Italian manuscript

“…This combined approach was already followed by Clark and coworkers in the characterisation of ancient manuscripts. 12,13 The recognition of fragments as being part of greenish ink (and not of contamination material) was verified by visual inspection with the Raman microscope.…”

Raman Microscopy Techniques for the Characterisation of Pigments

“…In terms of Western manuscripts, various published studies on pigments include those found on the Lindisfarne Gospels (Brown & Clark 2004a) and other Anglo-Saxon manuscripts (Brown & Clark 2004b), a 13th Century Paris Bible (Best et al 1993), a 13th Century north Italian antiphonal (Clark 1995), selected mediaeval manuscripts (Burgio et al 1997;Vandenabeele et al 1999;Bicchieri et al 2000), Flora Danica ), a 14th Century Icelandic Book of Law (Best et al 1995), the Vinland Map (Brown & Clark 2002), and recently on seven Gutenberg Bibles (Chaplin et al 2005). The last study allowed the illuminations on the King George (III) Gutenberg Bible held at the British Library to be examined in situ, and the palette established as consisting of:…”