lazurite, haematite, vermilion, red lead, orpiment, azurite, indigo, gold

Ingredients

lazurite, gold, red lead, haematite, vermilion, orpiment, azurite, indigo, carbon-based black

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Blue grounds and motifs were painted with lazurite (p. 1489). Reddish-brown pigment identified as haematite (alpha-Fe2O3), used for spiral scrolls (p. 1489). Vermilion identified as vitreous red crystals, sometimes mixed with pararealgar (p. 1489). Pink flowers painted with a mixture of cinnabar and white crystals (p. 1489). Orange flowers and frames painted with red lead (p. 1489). Green pigments in verse markers were mixtures of green and blue crystals, specifically azurite and indigo (p. 1490). Gold applied on a bole containing iron and calcium (p. 1491).

Evidence

"The blue shade of the outer frame is invariably due to lazurite. This is followed by a gold frame and then an orange frame, the pigment being identified as red lead. (p. 1489) ... Raman analysis identifies the black as carbon-based pigment, but the green pigment could not be recognised because of its overwhelming fluorescence. (p. 1490) ... occasionally, the green contour of the verse markers appeared to be made of aqua-coloured particles, whose Raman spectrum was typical of a mixture of indigo and azurite. (p. 1490)"

Remarks

The manuscript shows a conservative 15th-century style of illumination despite its 16th-century dating (p. 1484). The green frame exhibited strong fluorescence, preventing direct RM identification, though XRF showed copper (p. 1490). Haematite is mentioned as an iron(III) oxide widely used as a pigment, known as ochre when mixed with silica/clay (p. 1489).