cinnabar, arsenic, verdigris, gold, silver, lapis lazuli

Ingredients

gum arabic, cinnabar, arsenic, verdigris, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, vitriol, honey, clay, ivory, wood

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The chapter includes extensive preparations for metallic inks across several varieties. Table 8.1 (p. 189-191) details recipes for: 1. Preparation of gum arabic; 2. Cinnabar ink; 3. Arsenic ink; 4. Another [arsenic] ink; 5. Green ink (sometimes with gold water); 6. Verdigris ink; 7. Pistachio ink; 8. White ink; 9. Lapis lazuli ink; 10. Wine ink; 11. Turtle-dove ink; 12. Rosy ink; 13. Orange ink; 14. Honey ink; 15. Silver ink; 16. Black vitriolic ink; 17. Golden ink; 18. Ashen ink; 19. Violet ink; 20. Turquoise ink; 21. Peony ink; 22. Clay ink; 23. Lentil ink; 24. Abbasid ink; 25. Ivory ink; 26. Golden ink; 27. Preparation for golden, silver, copper, and lead ink; 28. Wood ink. It also features sections on 'the melting of gold' (No. 29), 'Melting of all the metals' (No. 30), and 'Preparation of an adhesive for gold' (No. 31).

Evidence

"Chapter 23: on kinds of metallic inks and dyes (al-liyaq wa-l-asbaġ) and the manner of their operations. Recipes for coloured metallic preparations that can be used to write or paint."

Remarks

Raggetti provides a synoptic table of these metallic ink recipes as attested across eight distinct manuscript witnesses: P (BnF Arabe 2776), B (Berlin Wetzstein II 1375), D (Damascus), T (Tehran), K (Kuwait), L (BL Egerton 709), C (Cairo), and La (Laurentianus). The diversity of colorants and binders suggests a highly developed technical tradition in 13th-century Mamluk science as recorded by Abu al-Qasim al-Iraqi (pp. 189-191).