Any reference to the literary productions of the past and to the
materials preserving and perpetuating written records, including the
Bible and sacred history, would be deficient were the qualities of the
early inks disregarded. The very ink in which the ancient literature,
sacred and classic, was embodied had an importance scarcely, if any,
less than the materials upon which the writing was impressed or
recorded. The task of transcribing a book, _e. g._, the Gallic Wars,
the Epic of Virgil, or the Bible, was an undertaking of so great
magnitude that the conservation of energy, if nothing else, taught the
importance of securing and using an ink that had "staying" qualities.
No sensible person, no matter when or where he might live, would be
apt to spend the time required to copy the Bible in its entirety (a
task necessitating the labor of a skillful calligraphist for nearly
three years) when all his work would soon be wasted by reason of an
impermanent ink.
The makers of the inks used in the early ages had a skill and
knowledge in the mixing of pigments or in compounding the ingredients
of their inks undiscovered, as yet, and unequaled in modern times.
The superiority of the inks known to the ancients has long been the
object of surprise and admiration. The inscriptions on mummy-cases,
made at a time long antedating the Christian Era, and the writing
on manuscripts made in the early centuries of Christian history, in
addition to the beauty of the form and finish of the writing, have a
freshness of appearance as though they were only of years' instead of
centuries' duration. "The survival of papyrus rolls containing the text
of the Egyptian ritual known as 'The Book of the Dead,' dating back
fifteen centuries B. C., and accompanied with numerous scenes painted
in brilliant colors, proves how ancient was this very natural method
of elucidating a written text by means of pictures."[36] And among the
ancient archæological treasures recently discovered in Crete are stucco
designs, the colors of which are almost as brilliant as when laid on,
over three thousand years ago.
The composition of the earliest inks has not yet been obtained and,
likely, is unascertainable. The first inks are supposed to have been
made from _sepia_--the secretion of the cuttle fish--or was composed of
a mixture of soot and gum. Later, inks were prepared from the apples of
the gall-oak, and from other materials--vegetable and mineral.
Inks of various colors and kinds--red, purple, green, and blue, and,
occasionally, of gold and silver--were often employed. The different
colored inks were used, respectively, for the in-filling of characters
and letters cut in stone and the like; for the ornamentation and
embellishment of mummy-cases and manuscripts; for titles and initial
letters (especially in the later centuries); for the purpose of
emphasis by contrast with other inks; for marginal notes by a later
hand (guarding thus against accidental alterations or interpolations
of the original writing); and to agree with the esthetic taste of
the copyist or his own notion of the value or the importance of the
production, as is seen in some beautiful copies of the Bible or
portions thereof and in other literary productions of the manuscript
age. (See pages 51-54.) The ink used on the early papyrus such as "The
Book of the Dead," was usually of a deep, glossy black color though
occasionally other colors are also found.
Concerning the picture-writing of the ancient Egyptians, Mr. Wallace
Budge of the British Museum says, "Where it was possible the scribe
represented an object in its natural colour; he made the moon yellow,
the sun red, trees, plants and all vegetables, green; but objects
requiring out of the way colours were not so well done, owing to
the comparatively limited supply of colours at the disposal of the
scribe."[37] In China, during the third century B. C., a dark varnish
was employed to paint on silk and bamboo, a brush being used in
its application. India ink came into use in China in the seventh
century A. D. The beautiful black ink, known to the ancients, greatly
deteriorated in quality in the Byzantine period, which may have
occasioned the restriction of the red ink to the emperor's exclusive
use, as at a later date the purple became the royal color.
Attempts made by chemical analysis and the use of reagents to discover
the ingredients of the inks used by the ancients have not yielded very
definite results. Beyond some general conclusions as to the components
of the first inks, there is little more than conjecture, and it now
seems that their manufacture must be classed as one of the lost arts.