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Forty Centuries of Ink by David N. Carvalho.
FORTY CENTURIES OF INK
OR
A CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE CONCERNING
INK AND ITS BACKGROUNDS
INTRODUCING INCIDENTAL OBSERVATIONS AND
DEDUCTIONS, PARALLELS OF TIME AND COLOR
PHENOMENA, BIBLIOGRAPHY, CHEMISTRY,
POETICAL EFFUSIONS, CITATIONS,
ANECDOTES AND CURIOSA TOGETHER WITH
SOME EVIDENCE RESPECTING THE
EVANESCENT CHARACTER OF
MOST INKS OF TO-DAY AND
AN EPITOME OF CHEMICO-LEGAL INK.
BY
DAVID N. CARVALHO
PREFACE.
The unfortunate conditions surrounding the almost
universal use of the oddly named commercial and with
few exceptions record inks, and the so-called modern
paper, is the motive for the writing of this book.
The numerous color products of coal tar, now so
largely employed in the preparation of ink, and the
worse material utilized in the manufacture of the hard-
finished writing papers, menace the future preservation
of public and other records. Those who occupy
official position and who can help to ameliorate this
increasing evil, should begin to do so without delay.
Abroad England, Germany and France and at home
Massachusetts and Connecticut have sought to modify
these conditions by legislation and our National Treasury
Department only last year, in establishing a standard
for its ink, gives official recognition of these
truths.
There is no "History of Ink;" but of ink history
there is a wealth of material, although historians have
neglected to record information about the very substance
by which they sought to keep and transmit the
chronicles they most desired to preserve. From the
beginning of the Christian era to the present day,
"Ink" literature, exclusive of its etymology, chemical
formulas, and methods of manufacture, has been confined
to brief statements in the encyclopedias, which
but repeat each other. A half dozen original articles,
covering only some particular branch together with a
few treatises more general in their ramifications of
the subject, can also be found. Seventy lines about
"writing ink" covering its history for nearly four
thousand years is all that is said in "The Origin and
Progress of Handwriting," a revised book of hundreds
of pages of Sir Thomas Astle, London, 1876, and once
deemed the very highest authority.
The mass of ancient and comparatively modern documents
which we have inherited, chronicle nothing
about the material with which they were written.
The more valuable of them are disfigured by the
superscription of newer writings over the partially
erased earlier ones, thus rendering the work of
ascertaining their real character most difficult.
Nevertheless, patient research and advanced science have
enabled us to intelligently study and investigate, and
from the evidence thus gained, to state facts and
formulate opinions that may perhaps outlast criticism.
The bibliographical story of "Ink" is replete with
many interesting episodes, anecdotes and poetical effusions.
Its chemical history is a varied and phenomenal
one. Before the nineteenth century the ink
industry was confined to the few. Since then, it has
developed into one of magnificent proportions. The
new departure, due to the discovery and development
of the "Aniline" family of fugitive colors, is noteworthy
as being a step backward which may take years to retrace.
The criminal abuse of ink is not infrequent by evil-
disposed persons who try by secret processes to reproduce
ink phenomena on ancient and modern documents.
While it is possible to make a new ink look
old, the methods that must be employed, will of themselves
reveal to the examiner the attempted fraud, if
he but knows how to investigate.
How to accomplish this as well as to give a chronological
history on the subject of inks generally, both
as to their genesis, the effect of time and the elements,
the determination of the constituents and the constitution
of inks, their value as to lasting qualities, their
removal and restoration, is the object of this work.
There is also included many court cases where the
matter of ink was in controversy; information respecting
ancient MSS. and the implements and other accessories
of ink which have from time to time been
employed in the act of writing.
To make a comprehensive review of the past in its
relationship to ink has been my aim. In the construction
of this work recourse has been had to the so-
called original sources of information. In these, the
diversity of their incomplete statements about different
countries and epochs has offered many obstacles.
In presenting my own deductions and inferences, it is
with a desire to remove any impressions as to this
volume being a mere compilation. "Facts are the
data of all just reasoning, and the elements of all real
knowledge. It follows that he is a wise man who possesses
the greatest store of facts on a given subject.
A book, therefore, which assembles facts from their
scattered sources, may be considered as a useful and
important auxiliary to those who seek them." A prolonged
and continuous intercourse for over a quarter
of a century with ancient and modern MSS., with
books and other literature, with laymen and chemists,
with students and manufacturers, together with the
information and knowledge derived from experiment
and study of results may enable the author to make
the subject fairly clear. Effort has been made to avoid
technical words and phrases in that portion treating
of the Chemistry of Inks.
This work will no doubt be variously considered.
Criticism is expected, indeed it is gladly invited, for
thereby may follow controversy, discussion and perhaps
legislation, which will bring about results beneficial
to those who are to follow after us.
CONTENTS
I. GENESIS OF INK
II. ANTIQUITY OF INK
III. CLASSICAL INK AND ITS EXODUS
IV. CLASSICAL INK AND ITS EXODUS (Continued)
V. REVIVAL OF INK
VI. INK OF THE WEST
VII. EARLY MEDIAEVAL INK
VIII. MEDIAEVAL INK
IX. END OF MEDIAEVAL INK
X. RENAISSANCE INK
XI. ANCIENT INK TREATISES
XII. STUDY OF INK
XIII. STUDY OF INK
XIV. CLASSIFICATIONS OF INK
XV. OFFICIAL AND LEGAL INK
XVI. ENDURING INK
XVII. INK PHENOMENA
XVIII. INK CHEMISTRY
XIX. FRAUDULENT INK BACKGROUNDS
XX. FUGITIVE INK.
XXI. ANCIENT AND MODERN INK RECEIPTS
XXII. INK INDUSTRY.
XXIII. CHEMICO-LEGAL INK
XXIV. CHEMICO-LEGAL INK (Continued)
XXV. INK UTENSILS OF ANTIQUITY
XXVI. INK UTENSILS (Quill PEN v. Steel Pen)
XXVII. SUBSTITUTES FOR INK UTENSILS ("Lead" and other Pencils)
XXVIII. ANCIENT INK BACKGROUNDS (The Origin of Papyrus)
XXIX. ANCIENT INK BACKGROUNDS (Parchment and Vellum)
XXX. MODERN INK BACKGROUNDS (True Paper)
XXXI. MODERN INK BACKGROUNDS (Wood Paper and Safety Paper)
XXXII. CURIOSA (Ink and other Writing Materials)
FORTY CENTURIES OF INK
CHAPTER I.
GENESIS OF INK.
THE ORIGIN OF INK--COMPOSITION OF THE COLORED
INKS OF ANTIQUITY--ANCIENT NAMES FOR BLACK
INKS--METHODS OF THEIR MANUFACTURE--THE INVENTION
OF "INDIAN" INK--THE ART OF DYEING
HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED--THE SYMBOLIC ESTIMATION
OF COLORS--THE EMPLOYMENT OF TINCTURES
AS INKS--CONSIDERATION OF THE ANTIQUITY
OF ARTIFICIAL INKS AND THE BLACK INKS OF INTERMEDIATE
TIMES--ORIGIN OF THE COLORED PIGMENTS
OF ANTIQUITY-CITATIONS FROM HERODOTUS,
PLINY AND ARBUTHNOT--PRICES CURRENT, OF ANCIENT
INKS AND COLORS--WHY THE NATURAL INKS
FORMERLY EMPLOYED ARE NOT STILL EXTANT--THE
KIND OF INK EMPLOYED BY THE PRIESTS IN THE
TIME OF MOSES--ILLUSTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE
EGYPTIANS IN ITS RELATIONSHIP TO WRITING
IMPLEMENTS--THE USE OF BOTH RED AND BLACK INK
IN JOSEPH'S TIME--ITS OTHER HISTORY PRECEDING
THE DEPARTURE OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT--THE
DISAPPEARANCE OF ALL BUT A FEW KINDS OF
INK--INK TRADITIONS AND THEIR VALUE--STORY
ABOUT THE ORACLES OF THE SIBYLS--HOW THE ANCIENT
HISTORIANS SOUGHT TO BE MISLEADING--ILLUSTRATIVE
ANECDOTE BY RICHARDSON:
THE origin of Ink belongs to an era following the
invention of writing. When the development of that
art had advanced beyond the age of stone inscription
or clay tablet, some material for marking with the
reed and the brush was necessary. It was not difficult
to obtain black or colored mixtures for this purpose.
With their advent, forty centuries or more ago, begins
the genesis of ink.
The colored inks of antiquity included the use of a
variety of dyes and pigmentary colors, typical of those
employed in the ancient art of dyeing, in which the
Egyptians excelled and still thought by many to be
one of the lost arts. The Bible and alleged contemporary
and later literature make frequent mention of
black and many colors of brilliant hues.
In tracing the arts of handwriting and dyeing,
some definite facts are to be predicated as to the most
remote history of ink.
The Hebrew word for ink is deyo, so called from its
blackness. As primitively prepared for ritualistic purposes
and for a continuing period of more than two
thousand years, it was a simple mixture of powdered
charcoal or soot with water, to which gum was sometimes
added.
The Arabian methods of making ink (alchiber) were
more complex. Lampblack was first made by the
burning of oil, tar or rosin, which was then commingled
with gum and honey and pressed into small wafers or
cakes, to which water could be added when wanted for
use.
About 1200 years before the Christian era, the Chinese
perfected this method and invented "Indian Ink,"
ostensibly for blackening the surface of raised hieroglyphics,
which "was obtained from the soot produced
by the smoke of pines and the oil in lamps, mixed
with the isinglass (gelatin) of asses' skin, and musk
to correct the odour of the oil." Du Halde cites the
following, as of the time of the celebrated Emperor
Wu-Wong, who flourished 1120 years before Christ:
"As the stone Me (a word signifying blackening
in the Chinese language), which is used to blacken
the engraved characters, can never become white;
so a heart blackened by vices will always retain its
blackness."
That the art of dyeing was known, valued and applied
among early nations, is abundantly clear. The
allusions to "purple and fine raiment," to "dyed garments,"
to "cloth of many colours," &c., are numerous
in the Bible. In a note to the "Pictorial Bible, after
an allusion to the antiquity of this art, and to the pre-
eminence attached by the ancients to purple beyond
every other color, it is remarked: "It is important
to understand that the word purple, in ancient writings,
does not denote one particular colour."
Many of the names of the dyestuffs have come down
to us, some of them still in use at this time and others
obsolete. They were employed sometimes as ink, and
certain color values given to them, of which the more
important were blue, red, yellow, green, white, black,
purple, gold and silver. Some colors were estimated
symbolically. White was everywhere the symbol of
purity and the emblem of innocence, and, just opposite,
black was held up as an emblem of affliction and
calamity.
Green was the emblem of freshness, vigor and prosperity.
Blue was the symbol of revelation; it was pre-eminently
the celestial color blessed among heathen
nations, and among the Hebrews it was the Jehovah
color, the symbol of the revered God. Hence, it
was the color predominant in Mosaic ceremonies.
Purple was associated as the dress of kings, with
ideas of royalty and majesty.
Crimson and scarlet, from their resemblance to
blood, became symbolical of life, and also an emblem
of that which was indelible or deeply ingrained.
Later, in Christian times, only five colors were recognized
as fitting for theological meaning or expression:
white, red, green, violet and black.
White was esteemed as being the union of all the
rays of light, and is often referred to as the symbol of
truth and spotless purity. Red was emblematic both
of fire and love, while green from its analogy to the
vegetable world, was indicative of life and hope. Violet
was considered the color of penitence and sorrow.
Blue was forbidden except as a color peculiarly appropriated
to the Virgin Mary, while black represented
universally sorrow, destruction and death.
The art of dyeing was also well understood and
practiced in Persia in the most ancient periods. The
modern Persians have chosen Christ as their patron,
and Bischoff says at present call a dyehouse Christ's
workshop, from a tradition they have that He was of
that profession, which is probably founded on the old
legend "that Christ being put apprentice to a dyer,
His master desired him to dye some pieces of cloth of
different colors; He put them all into a boiler, and
when the dyer took them out he was terribly frightened
on finding that each had its proper color."
This, or a similar legend, occurs in the apocryphal
book entitled, "The First Gospel of the Infancy of
Jesus Christ." The following is the passage:
"On a certain day also, when the Lord Jesus
was playing with the boys, and running about, He
passed by a dyer's shop whose name was Salem,
and there were in his shop many pieces of cloth
belonging to the people of that city, which they
designed to dye of several colors. Then the Lord,
Jesus, going into the dyer's shop, took all the cloths
and threw them into the furnace. When Salem
came home and saw the cloth spoiled, he began to
make a great noise and to chide the Lord Jesus,
saying: 'What hast Thou done, unto me, O thou
son of Mary? Thou hast injured both me and my
neighbors; they all desired their cloths of a proper
color, but Thou hast come and spoiled them all.'
The Lord Jesus replied: 'I will change the color
of every cloth to what color thou desirest,' and
then He presently began to take the cloths out of
the furnace; and they were all dyed of those same
colors which the dyer desired. And when the Jews
saw this surprising miracle they praised God."
The ancients used also a number of tinctures as
ink, among them a brown color, sepia, in Hebrew
tekeleth. As a natural ink its origin antedates every
other ink, artificial or otherwise, in the world. It is a
black-brown liquor, secreted by a small gland into an
oval pouch, and through a connecting duct is ejected
at will by the cuttle fish which inhabits the seas of
Europe, especially the Mediterranean. These fish
constantly employ the contents of their "ink bags"
to discolor the water, when in the presence of enemies,
in order to facilitate their escape from them.
The black broth of the Spartans was composed of
this product. The Egyptians sometimes used it for
coloring inscriptions on stone. It is the most lasting
of all natural ink substances.
So great is the antiquity of artificial ink that the
name of its inventor or date of its invention are alike
unknown. The poet Whitehead refers to it as follows:
Hard that his name it should not save,
Who first poured forth the sable wave."
The common black ink of the ancients was essentially
different in composition and less liable to fade
than those used at the present time. It was not a
stain like ours, and when Horace wrote
"And yet as ink the fairest paper stains,
So worthless verse pollutes the fairest deeds,"
he must have had in mind the vitriolic ink of his own
time.
But little information relative to black inks of the
intermediate times has come down to us, and it is conveyed
through questioned writings of authors who
flourished about the period of the life of Jesus Christ;
the Younger Pliny and Dioscorides are the most prominent
of them. They present many curious recipes.
One of these, suggested by Pliny, is that the addition
of an infusion of wormwood to ink will prevent the
destruction of MSS. by mice.
From a memoir by M. Rousset upon the pigments
and dyes used by the ancients, it would appear that
the variety was very considerable. Among the white
colors, they were acquainted with white lead; and for
the blacks, various kinds of charcoal and soot were
used. Animal skins were dyed black with gall apples
and sulphate of iron (copper). Brown pigments were
made by mixing different kinds of ochre. Under the
name of Alexander blue, the ancients--Egyptians as
well as Greeks and Romans--used a pigment containing
oxide of copper, and also one containing cobalt.
Fabrics were dyed blue by means of pastel-wood.
Yellow pigments were principally derived from weld,
saffron, and other native plants.
Vermilion, red ochre, and minium (red lead) were
known from a remote antiquity, although the artificial
preparation of vermilion was a secret possessed
only by the Chinese.
The term scarlet as employed in the Old Testament
was used to designate the blood-red color procured
from an insect somewhat resembling cochineal, found
in great quantities in Armenia and other eastern
countries. The Arabian name of the insect is Kermez
(whence crimson). It frequents the boughs of a species
of the ilex tree: on these it lays its eggs in groups,
which become covered with a sort of down, so that
they present the appearance of vegetable galls or
excrescences from the tree itself and are described as
such by Pliny XVI, 12, who also gave it the name of
granum, probably on account of its resemblance to a
grain or berry, which has been adopted by more recent
writers and is the origin of the term "ingrain color"
as now in use. The dye is procured from the female
grub alone, which, when alive is about the size of the
kernel of a cherry and of a dark red-brown color, but
when dead, shrivels up to the size of a grain of wheat
and is covered with a bluish mold. It has an agreeable
aromatic smell which it imparts to that with which
it comes into contact. It was first found in general
use in Europe in the tenth century. About 1550,
cochineal, introduced there from Mexico, was found
to be far richer in coloring matter and therefore gradually
superseded the older dyestuff.
Indigo was used in India and Egypt long before the
Christian era; and it is asserted that blue ribbons
(strips) found on Egyptian mummies 4500 years old
had been dyed with indigo. It was introduced into
Europe only in the sixteenth century.
The use of madder as a red dyestuff dates from very
early times. Pliny mentions it as being employed by
the Hindoos, Persians and Egyptians. In the middle
ages the names sandis, warantia, granza, garancia,
were applied to madder, the latter (garance) being
still retained in France. The color yielding substance
resides almost entirely in the roots.
Chilzon was the name given by the ancient Hebrews
to a blue dye procured from a species of shell-fish.
Herodotus, B. C. 443, asserts that on the shores of
the Caspian Sea lived a people who painted the forms
of animals on their garments with vegetable dyes:
"They have trees whose leaves possess a peculiar
property; they reduce them to powder, and then
strip them in water; this forms a dye or coloring
matter with which they paint on their garments the
figures of animals. The impression is such that it
cannot be washed out; it appears, indeed, to be
woven into the cloth, and wears as long as the garment
itself."
We are informed by another ancient writer that the
pagan nations were accustomed to array the images
of their gods in robes of purple. When the prophet
Ezekiel took up a lamentation for Tyre, he spoke of
the "blue and purple from the isles of Elishah" in
which the people were clothed. This reference is said
to doubtless refer to the islands of the Aegian Sea,
from whence many claim , the Tyrians obtained the
shell-fish,--the murex and papura, which produced the
dark-blue and bright-scarlet coloring materials, the
employment of which contributed so much to the fame
of ancient Tyre.
Pliny the younger confirms this statement:
"The Tyrian-purple was the juice of the Purpurea,
a shell-fish, the veins of its neck and jaws
secreting this royal color, but so little was obtained
that it was very rare and cost one thousand
Denarii (about $150.00) per pound."
A more modern writer in discussing a crimson or
ruby color says:
"By a mistaken sense the Latin word purpurus,
has been called purple, by all the English and
French writers."
Arbuthnot, London, 1727, in his book "Ancient
Coins, Weights and Measures," as the result of his
examinations of the most ancient records estimates:
"The Purple was very dear; there were two
sorts of Fishes whereof it was made, the Pelagii,
(which were those that were caught in the deep)
and the Buccini. The Pelagium per Pound was
worth 50 Nummi, (8 s. 10 3/4 d.), and the Buceinunt
double that, viz. 17 s. 8 3/4 d. (Harduin
reads a hundred Pounds at that price.) The Tyrian
double Dye per Pound could scarce be bought
for L35 9 s., 1 3/4 d."
The very ancient writers state that the most esteemed
of the Tyrian purples were those which compared
in color with "coagulated bullocks' blood."
This estimation seems to go back to the time of the
Phoenicians, who were excessively fond of the redder
shades of purple which they obtained also from several
varieties of shell-fish and comprehended under two
species; one (Buccinum) found in cliffs, and the other
(Pelagia) which was captured at sea. The first was
found on the coasts of the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
The Atlantic shells afforded the darkest color, while
those of the Phoenician coast itself yielded scarlet
shades of wonderful intensity.
Respecting the cost and durability of the Tyrian
purple, it is related that Alexander the Great found in
the treasury of the Persian monarch 5,000 quintals of
Hermione purple of great beauty, and 180 years old,
and that it was worth $125 of our money per pound
weight. The price of dyeing a pound of wool in the
time of Augustus is given by Pliny, and that price is
equal to about $160 of our money. It is probable
that his remarks refer to some particular tint or quality
of color easily distinguished, although not at all clearly
defined by Pliny. He also mentions a sort of purple,
or hyacinth, which was worth, in the time of Julius
Caesar, 100 denarii (about $15 of our money) per
pound.
The best authorities of the present day, however,
are of opinion that the celebrated Tyrian-purple was
extracted from a mollusk known as the Janthina prolongata,
a shell abundant in the Mediterranean and
very common near Narbonne, where the Tyrian purple
dye-works were in operation at least six hundred
years before Christ.
The price current of some of the inks and colors of
antiquity, as quoted by Arbuthnot, are cited herewith:
Armenian purple 30 hs.=4 s. 10 1/3 d.
India purple from one Denarius, or 7 3/4 d. to 30
Denarii, 19 s. 4 1 2 d.
Pelagium, the juice of one sort fishes that dyed
purple, 50 hs.=8 s. 0 7/8 d.
Buccinum the juice of the other fish that dyed
purple, 100 hs.=16 s. 1 3/4 d.
Cinnabar 50 hs.=8 s. 0 7/8 d.
Tarentine red purple, price not mentioned.
Melinum, a sort of colour that came from Melos,
one Nummus,=1 15/16 d.
Paretonium, a sort of colour that came from aegypt,
very lasting, 6 Denarii,=3 s. 10 1/2 d.
Myrobalanus, 2 Denarii,=1 s. 3 1/2 d.
The last-named substance is the fruit of the Termi-
nalia, a product of China and the East Indies, best
known as Myrabolams and must have been utilized
solely for the tannin they contain, which Loewe
estimates to be identical with ellago-tannic acid, later
discovered in the divi-divi, a fruit grown in South
America, and bablah which is also a fruit of a species
of Acacia, well known also for its gum.
No monuments are extant of the ancient Myrabolam ink.
Antimony and galls were used by the Egyptian
ladies to tint their eyes and lashes and (who knows)
to write with.
Many of the dyes employed as ink were those occurring
naturally as animal and vegetable products, or
which could be produced therefrom by comparatively
simple means, otherwise we would not be confronted
with the fact that no specimens of ink writing of
natural origin remain to us.
The very few specimens of ink writing which have
outlasted decay and disintegration through so many
ages, are found to be closely allied to materials like
bitumen, lampblack obtained from the smoke of oil-
torches or resins; or gold, silver, cinnabar and
minium.
Josephus asserts that the books of the ancient Hebrews
were written in gold and silver.
"Sicca dewat" (A silver ink standeth), as the ancient
Arabic proverb runs.
Rosselini asserts:
"the monumental hireoglyphics of the Egyptians
were almost invariably painted with the liveliest
tints; and when similar hireoglyphics were executed
on a reduced scale, and in a more cursive
form upon papyri or scrolls made from the leaves
of the papyrus the pages were written with both
black and colored inks."
The early mode of ink writing in biblical times
mentioned in Numbers v. 23, where It is said "the
priest shall write the curses in a book, and blot them
out with the bitter water," was with a kind of ink
prepared for the purpose, without any salts of iron or
other material which could make a permanent dye;
these maledictions were then washed into the water,
which the woman was obliged to drink, so that she
drank the very words of the execration. The ink
still used in the East is almost all of this kind; a wet
sponge will obliterate the finest of their writings.
In the book of Jeremiah, chap. xxxvi. verse 18, it
says: "Then Baruch answered, He pronounced all
these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote
THEM with ink in the book," and in Ezek. ix. 2, 3, 11,
"Ink horn" is referred to.
Six hundred years later in the New Testament is
another mention of ink "having many things to write
unto you. I would not write with paper and Ink,"
&c.; second epistle. of John, 12, and again in his
third epistle, 13, "I had many things to write, but
I will not with pen and Ink write unto thee."
The illustrative history of the ancient Egyptians
does not point to a time before the reed was used as a
pen. The various sculptures, carvings, pottery and
paintings, exhibit the scribes at work in their avocations,
recording details about the hands and ears of
slaughtered enemies, the numbers of captives, the
baskets of wheat, the numerous animals, the tribute,
the treaties and the public records. These ancient
scribes employed a cylindrical box for ink, with writing
tablets, which were square sections of wood with
lateral grooves to hold the small reeds for writing.
During the time Joseph was Viceroy of Egypt
under Sethosis I, the first of the Pharaohs, B. C. 1717,
he employed a small army of clerks and storekeepers
throughout Egypt in his extensive grain operations.
The scribes whose duties pertained to making records
respecting this business, used both red and black inks,
contained in different receptacles in a desk, which,
when not in use, was placed in a box or trunk, with
leather handles at the sides, and in this way was
carried from place to place. As the scribe had two
colors of ink, he needed two pens (reeds) and we see
him on the monuments of Thebes, busy with one pen
at work, and the other placed in that most ancient
pen-rack, behind the ear. Such, says Mr. Knight, is
presented in a painting at Beni Hassan.
The Historical Society of New York possesses a
small bundle of these pens, with the stains of the ink
yet upon them, besides a bronze knife used for making
such pens (reeds), and which are alleged to belong to
a period not far removed from Joseph's time.
The other history of ink, long preceding the departure
of Israel from Egypt, and with few exceptions
until after the middle ages, can only be considered, as
it is intimately bound up in the chronology and story
of handwriting and writing materials. Even then it
must not be supposed that the history of ink is authentic
and continuous from the moment handwriting was
applied to the recording of events; for the earliest
records are lost to us in almost every instance. We
are therefore dependent upon later writers, who made
their records in the inks of their own time, and who
could refer to those preceding them only by the aid
of legends and traditions.
There is no independent data indicating any variation
whatever in the methods of the admixture of
black or colored inks, which differentiates them from
those used in the earliest times of the ancient
Egyptians, Hebrews or Chinese. On the contrary if we
exclude "Indian" and one of the red inks, for a period
of fourteen hundred years we find their number diminishing
until the first centuries of the Christian era.
Exaggerated tradition has described inks as well as
other things and imagination is not lacking. Some of
these legends, in later years put in writing, compel us
to depend on translations of obscure and obsolete
tongues, while the majority of them are mingled with
the errors and superstitious of the time in which they
were transcribed.
The value of such accounts depends upon a variety
of circumstances and we must proceed with the utmost
caution and discrimination in examining and weighing
the authenticity of these sources of information.
If we reason that the art of handwriting did not
become known to all the ancient nations at once, but
was gradually imparted by one to another, it follows
that records supposed to be contemporaneous, were
made in some countries at a much earlier period than
in others. It must also be observed that the Asiatic
nations and the Egyptians practiced the art of writing
many centuries before it was introduced into Europe.
Hence we are able to estimate with some degree of
certainty that ink-written accounts of some Asiatic
nations were made while Europe was in this respect
buried in utter darkness.
An interesting story which bears on this statement
is told by Kennett, in his "Antiquities of Rome,"
London, 1743, as to the discovery of ancient MSS.,
five hundred and twenty years before the Christian
era, of what even then must have been remarkable:
"A strange old woman came once to Tarquinius
Superbus with nine books, which, she said, were
the oracles of the Sybils, and proffered to sell them.
But the king making some scruple about the price,
she went away and burnt three of them; and returning
with the six, asked the same sum as before.
Tarquin only laughed at the humour; upon which
the old woman left him once more; and after she
had burnt three others, came again with them that
were left, but still kept to her old terms. The king
now began to wonder at her obstinacy, and thinking
there might be something more than ordinary
in the business, sent for the augars (soothsayers)
to consult what was to be done. They, when their
divinations were performed, soon acquainted him
what a piece of impiety he had been guilty of, by
refusing a treasure sent to him from heaven, and
commanded him to give whatever she demanded for
the books that remained. The woman received her
money, and delivered the writings; and only, charging
them by all means to keep them sacred, immediately
vanished. Two of the nobility were presently
after chosen to be the keepers of these oracles,
which were laid up with all imaginable care in the
Capitol, in a chest under ground. They could not
be consulted without a special order of the Senate,
which was never granted, unless upon the receiving
of some notable defeat; upon the rising of any
considerable mutiny, or sedition in the State; or
upon some other extraordinary occasion; several of
which we meet with in Livy."
Some of the ancient historians even sought to be
misleading respecting the events not only of their own
times, but of epochs which preceded them. Richardson,
in his "Dissertation on Ancient History and Mythology,"
published in 1778, remarks:
"The information received hitherto has been almost
entirely derived through the medium of the
Grecian writers; whose elegance of taste, harmony
of language, and fine arrangement of ideas, have
captivated the imagination, misled the judgment,
and stamped with the dignified title of history, the
amusing excursions of fanciful romance. Too
proud to consider surrounding nations, (if the Eyptians
may be excepted) in any light but that of
barbarians; they despised their records, they altered
their language, and framed too often their
details, more to the prejudices of their fellow citizens,
than to the standard of truth or probability.
We have names of Persian kings, which a Persian
could not pronounce; we have facts related they
apparently never knew; and we have customs
ascribed to them, which contradict every distinguishing
characteristic of an Eastern people. The
story of Lysimachus and one Greek historian may
indeed, with justice, be applied to many others.
This prince, in the partition of Alexander's empire,
became King of Thrace: he had been one of the
most active of that conqueror's commanders; and
was present at every event which deserved the
attention of history. A Grecian had written an
account of the Persian conquest; and be wished to
read it before the king. The monarch listened
with equal attention and wonder: 'All this is very
fine,' says he, when the historian had finished,
'but where was I when those things were performed?' "