RENAISSANCE INK.
INK OF GRAY COLOR BELONGING TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
AND ITS CAUSES--INFLUENCE OF THE FATHERS OF
THE CHURCH RESPECTING INK DURING THE DARK
AGES--THE REFORMATION AND HOW IT AFFECTED MEDIAEVAL
MSS.--REMARKS OF BALE ABOUT THEIR DESTRUCTION--
QUAINT INK RECEIPT OF 1602--SELECTION
FROM THE TWELFTH NIGHT RELATING TO PEN AND
INK--GENERAL CONDITIONS WHICH OBTAINED UNTIL
1626--THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AWARDS AN INK
CONTRACT IN THAT YEAR--OTHER GOVERNMENTS ADOPT
THE FRENCH FORMULA--INKS OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY ALMOST PERFECT IN THEIR COLOR PHENOMENA--
NO ADDED COLOR EMPLOYED IN THEIR MANUFACTURE.
THE gray color of most of the inks found on documents
written in the sixteenth century is a noteworthy
fact. Whence its cause is a matter for considerable
speculation. The majority of these inks
unquestionably belong to the "gall" class and if prepared
after the formulas utilized in preceding centuries
should indicate like color phenomena. As
these same peculiarities exist on both paper, vellum
and parchment, it cannot be attributed to their use.
Investigations in many instances of the writings indicate
the exercise of a more rapid pen movement
and a consequent employment of inks of greater
fluidity than those of an earlier history. Such fluidity
could only be obtained by a reduction of the quantity
of gummy vehicles together with an increase of ink
acidity. The acids which had theretofore been more
or less introduced into inks, except oxalic acid, could
not effect such results. Consequently, as the monuments
of this gray ink phenomena are to be found
belonging to all the portions of the Christian world,
with a uniformity that is certainly remarkable, it becomes
a fair deduction to assume that the making of
inks bad passed into the hands of regular manufacturers
who adulterated them with "added" color.
We can well believe that the influences which the
fathers of the Church exerted during the thousand
years known as the "Dark Ages," in respect to ink
and kindred subjects, must have been very great.
That they endeavored to perpetuate for the benefit of
succeeding generations in book and other forms, this
kind of information, which they distributed throughout
the world we know to be true. Most of these
sources of ink information, however, gradually disappeared
as constituting a series of sad events in the unhappy
war which followed their preparation.
The Reformation began in Germany in the first
quarter of the sixteenth century, and with it the
eighty years of continual religious warfare which
followed. During this period the priceless MSS. books
of information, historical, literary and otherwise, contained
in the monastic libraries outside of Italy were
burnt.
We are told:
"In England cupidity and intolerance destroyed
recklessly. Thus, after the dissolution of monastic
establishments, persons were appointed to search
out all missals, books of legends, and such 'superstitious
books' and to destroy or sell them for
waste paper; reserving only their bindings, when,
as was frequently the case, they were ornamented
with massive gold and silver, curiously chased, and
often further enriched with precious stones; and so
industriously had these men done their work, destroying
all books in which they considered popish
tendencies to be shown by illumination, the use of
red letters, or of the Cross, or even by the--to them
--mysterious diagrams of mathematical problems--
that when, some years later, Leland was appointed
to examine the monastic libraries, with a view to
the preservation of what was valuable in them, he
found that those who had preceded him had left
little to reward his search."
Bale, himself an advocate for the dissolution of
monasteries, says:
"Never had we bene offended for the losse of
our lybraryes beyng so many in nombre and in so
desolute places for the moste parte, yf the chief
monuments and moste notable workes of our excellent
wryters had bene reserved, yf there had bene
in every shyre of Englande but one solemyne lybrary
for the preservacyon of those noble workes, and
preferrments of good learnyuges in our posteryte it
had bene yet somewhat. But to destroye all without
consyderacyon is and wyll be unto Englande for
ever a most horryble infamy amonge the grave
senyours of other natyons. A grete nombre of
them wych purchased of those superstycyose mansyons
reserved of those lybrarye bokes, some to
serve theyr jaks, some to scoure theyr candelstyckes,
and some to rubb theyr bootes . some they solde to
the grossers and sope sellers, and some they sent
over see to the bokebynders, not in small nombre,
but at tymes whole shippesful. I knowa merchant
man, whyche shall at thys tyme be namelesse, that
boughte the content-, of two noble lybraryes for xl
shyllyngs pryce, a shame it is to be spoken. Thys
stuffe hathe he occupyed in the stide of greve paper
for the space of more than these ten years, and yet
hathe store ynough for as many years to come. A
prodyguous example is thys, and to be abhorred of
all men who love theyr n atyon as they shoulde do."
Passing to later epochs, A. D. 1602, the following
quaint receipt proves interesting as showing that the
"gall" inks were well known at that time:
"To make common Ink, of Wine take a quart,
Two ounces of Gumme, let that be a part;
Five ounces of Galls, of Cop'res take three,
Long standing doth make it the better to be;
If Wine ye do want, raine water is best,
And then as much stuffe as above at the least,
If the Ink be too thick, put Vinegar in,
For water doth make the colour more dimme."
Shakespeare in his Twelfth Night III, 2, has also
referred to them in the following amusing strain:
"Go write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief;
it is no matter how witty, so it be eloquent, and
full of invention; taunt him with the license of
ink; if thou thou'st him thrice, it shall nor be
amiss; and as many lies as will lie on a sheet of
paper, although the sheet were big enough for
the bed of Ware in England, set 'em down; go,
about it. Let there be gall enough in thy ink,
though thou write with a goose pen, no matter:
about it."
The general black ink conditions for a period of at
least three hundred years, if we exclude the sixteenth
century, had been but repetitions of each other.
They so remained until the year 1626, when the
French government concluded an arrangement with a
chemist by the name of Guyot, for the manufacture
of a "gall" ink WITHOUT added color and which thereby
guaranteed and insured more sameness in respect to
desirable ink qualities. That government with a few
modifications relative to the proportions of ingredients
continued its employment, which was followed by the
contemporaneous writers. Other governments later
partially adopted the French formulas while some of
them gave the matter no attention, although their
records and those of the cities or towns not only of
Europe but early America, the United States and
Canada are found in most instances to have been written
with an ink of this character.
Where prior to 1850, inks containing a different
base (with the single exception of indigo) were used,
they have either disappeared or nearly so and it is not
an infrequent occurrence among those who are accustomed
to examine old records to find that signatures
or dates to valuable instruments, pages of writings and
indeed sometimes the writings in an entire book are
more or less obliterated.
The black inks of a large portion of the seventeenth
century, on documents of every kind, are found to be
nearly perfect as to color conditions, which is evidence
of the extreme care used in their preparation and the
exclusion of "added" color in ink manufacture.