'killed' mercury
Arabic
14th Century
Source: Raggetti, L. (2019). Inks as Instruments of Writing. Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 10(2), 201–239.
Recipe Details
Ingredients
'killed' mercury, fish glue
Preparation Steps
Take mercury that has been 'killed' (likely processed with sulfur or through physical agitation), combine it with fish glue, and use it for writing. Once dry, the writing must be polished with an onyx stone to achieve the silver appearance (pp. 223-224).
Original Recipe Text
Take mercury that has been 'killed' (likely processed with sulfur or through physical agitation), combine it with fish glue, and use it for writing. Once dry, the writing must be polished with an onyx stone to achieve the silver appearance (pp. 223-224).
Evidence
"Take ‘killed’ mercury, put it in fish glue, write with it, and leave until it dries. Then polish it with onyx, and it will come out the colour of silver. (pp. 223-224)"
Remarks
Raggetti notes that metallic inks like this are suspensions of particles in a binder (p. 231).
Scientific Analysis
Chemical CompositionHg
Analytical Techniques
philological analysis
Certainty Level
Inferred
Instrumentally Verified
Not Verified
Metadata
Material Type
ink
BinderFish glue
ColorSilver
RegionArabic
Approx. Year1350
Source Information
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