友情提示:如果本网页打开太慢或显示不完整,请尝试鼠标右键“刷新”本网页!阅读过程发现任何错误请告诉我们,谢谢!! 报告错误
九色书籍 返回本书目录 我的书架 我的书签 TXT全本下载 进入书吧 加入书签

forty centuries of ink-第17章

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!




asserted by some writers (with whom I do not

agree) to be those commonly known as the 〃Norway

spruce;〃 a species of pine of lofty proportions sometimes

rising to the height of 150 feet with a trunk

from four to five feet in diameter。 It lives to a great

age believed to exceed in many instances 450 years。

The leaves (needles; thorns) are short but stand thickly

upon the branches and are of a dusky green color

shining on the upper surface; the fruit is nearly

cylindrical in form and of a purple color covered with

scales ragged at the edges。 It is a native of Europe

and Northern Asia。 It furnishes the material known

as Burgundy pitch which is obtained by removing the

juice which is secreted in the bark of the tree; it is

purified by a melting process and straining either

through a cloth or a layer of straw。 It gives forth a

peculiar odor not unpleasant; resembling turpentine。

The Burgundy pitch or rosin is soluble in hot alcohol

(spirits of wine)。



An ink prepared after the method laid down by this

monk; assuming that he referred to the spruce…pine;

while troublesome to write with; would be almost as

lasting as 〃Indian〃 ink and would be most difficult

to erase from parchment into which it would be absorbed

due to its alcoholic qualities。



〃The ink;〃 remarks Montfaucon; 〃which we see in

the most ancient Greek manuscripts; has evidently

lost much of its pristine blackness; yet neither has it

become altogether yellow or faint; but is rather tawny

or deep red; and often not far from a vermillion。〃

While there are some monuments of this kind of ink

in fair condition of the fourth and succeeding centuries;

they aggregate but a very small proportion of

the vast number of principally Indian ink specimens

which remain to us of those epochs。 As exemplars;

however; of a forgotten class of inks belonging to a still

more remote antiquity; careful research adduces certain

proof of their existence more than nine hundred

years before the Christian era commenced。



Reference has earlier been made to the ancient

Myrobolam ink; which was characteristically the same

in color phenomena as those which Montfaucon mentions。

These 〃tawny〃 colored inks I estimate were

products obtained from the 〃thorn〃 trees spoken of

by the monk Theophilus。 The thorn trees were of

two species。 The pomegranate; anciently called the

〃Punic apple;〃 because it was largely employed by

the Carthagenians for the purposes of dyeing and

tanning; and the acacia; known in Egyptian times

as the lotus。 The former was held in such high esteem

that the Arabians and Egyptians made it an emblem

to designate one of their dieties and termed it

raman。



The products of these thorn; trees were collectively

used together as ink; most of the tannin being obtained

from the pomegranate; and the gum from the acacia。







CHAPTER VIII。



MEDIAEVAL INK。



INK SECRETAS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY COMPARED WITH

EARLIER ONESAPPEARANCE OF TANNO…GALLATE OF

IRON INK IN THE TWELFTH CENTURYITS INTRODUCTION

LOCATES THE EPOCH WHEN THE MODERN INK OF

TO…DAY FIRST CAME INTO VOGUEITS APPROVAL AND

ADOPTION BY THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCHTHE

INVENTION NOT ITALIAN BUT ASIATICITS ARRIVAL

FROM ASIA FROM THE WEST AND NOT THE EASTAPPEARANCE

ABOUT THE SAME TIME OF LINEN OR MODERN

PAPERSETTLEMENT OF OLD CONTROVERSIES ABOUT

ANCIENT SO…CALLED COTTON PAPER…DE VINNE'S COMMENT

ABOUT PAPER AND PAPER…MAKINGCURIOUS

CONTRACT OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY。



THE 〃Secretas〃 of the twelfth century; in so far as

they relate to methods of making ink; indicate many

departures from those contained in the more ancient

ones。 Frequent mention is made of sour galls; aleppo

galls; green and blue vitriol; the lees of wine; black

amber; sugar; fish…glue and a host of unimportant materials

as being employed in the admixture of black

inks。 Combinations of some of these materials are

expressed in formulas; the most important one of

which details with great particularity the commingling

together of an infusion of nut…galls; green vitriol (sulphate

of iron) and fish…glue (isinglass); the two first

(tanno…gallate of iron) when used alone; forms the sole

base of all unadulterated 〃gall〃 inks。



Dates are appended to some of these ink and other

formulas。 The 〃tanno…gallate of iron〃 one has; however;

no date。 But as it appears closely following

a date of A。 D。 1126; it must have been written about

that time。



Documents; public and private; bearing dates nearly

contemporary with that era; written in ink of like

type; are still extant; confirming in a remarkable

degree the 〃Secreta〃 formula; and establishing the

fact that the first half of the twelfth century marks

the epoch in which the 〃gall〃 or modern ink of today

came into vogue。



Its adoption by the priests stamped it with the

seal of the Church and the arrival from the West

about the same period of flax or linen paper with the

added fact that these assimilated so well together;

later placed them both on the popular basis which

has continued to the present time。



While the Secreta which contains the 〃gall〃 ink

formula is of Italian origin; the invention of this ink

belongs solely to an Asiatic country; from whence in

gradual stages by way of Arabia; Spain and France;

it finally reached Rome。 Thence; through the Church;

information about it was conveyed to wherever civilization

existed。



We are not confined in our investigations of ancient

MSS。 to any particular locality or date; as the twelfth;

thirteenth; fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are prolific

of 〃gall〃 ink monuments covering an immense

territory。 Such inks when used unadulterated; remain

in an almost pristine color condition; while the

other inks to which some pigment or color had been

added; probably to make them more agreeable in appearance

and more free…flowing; with a mistaken idea

of improving them; are much discolored and in every

instance present but slight indications of their original

condition。



The question of the character of the paper employed

during these eras; composed of different kinds

of fibrous vegetable substances; possesses some importance

when discussing its relationship to inks。 Many

authors certify to the manufacture and use of 〃cotton〃

in the eleventh; twelfth and later centuries。

Madan; however; in treating this subject; makes the

following comments which are in line with my own

observations:



〃Paper has for long been the common substance

for miscellaneous purposes of ordinary writing; and

has at all times been formed exclusively from rags

(chiefly of linen) reduced to pull); poured out on a

frame in a thin watery sheet; and gradually dried

and given consistence by the action of heat。 It

has been a popular belief; found in every book till

1886 (now entirely disproved; but probably destined

to die hard); that the common yellowish thick

paper; with rough fibrous edge; found especially in

Greek MSS。 till the fifteenth century; was paper of

quite another sort; and made of cotton (charta

bombycna; bombyx being usually silk; but also

used of any fine fibre such as cotton)。 The microscope

has at last conclusively shown that these two

papers are simply two different kinds of ordinary

linen…rag paper。〃



De Vinne speaking; of paper and paper…making says:



〃The gradual development of paper…making in

Europe is but imperfectly presented through these

fragmentary facts。 Paper may have been made for

many years before it found chroniclers who thought

the manufacture worthy of notice。 The Spanish

paper…mills of Toledo which were at work in the

year 1085; and an ancient family of paper…makers

which was honored with marked favor by the king

of Sicily in the year 1102; are carelessly mentioned

by contemporary writers as if paper…making was an

old and established business。 It does not appear

that paper was a novelty at a much earlier period。

The bulls of the popes of the eighth and ninth centuries

were written on cotton card or cotton paper;

but no writer called attention to this card; or described

it as a new material。 It has been supposed

that this paper was made in Asia; but it could

have been made in Europe。 A paper…like fabric;

made from the barks of trees; was used for writing

by the Longobards in the seventh century; and a

coarse imitation of the Egyptian papyrus; in the

form of a strong brown paper; had been made by

the Romans as early as the third century。 The

art of compacting in a web the macerated fibres of

plants seems to have been known and practised to

some extent in Southern Europe long before the

establishment of Moorish paper…mills。



〃The Moors brought to Spain and Sicily not an

entirely new invention; but an improved method of

making paper; and what was more important; a culture

and civilization that kept this method in constant

exercise。 It was chiefly fo
返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0
未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
温馨提示: 温看小说的同时发表评论,说出自己的看法和其它小伙伴们分享也不错哦!发表书评还可以获得积分和经验奖励,认真写原创书评 被采纳为精评可以获得大量金币、积分和经验奖励哦!