vermilion

Ingredients

Hg, S

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Identified as cinnabar or vermilion (HgS). Used in red ink for details, margins, and specifically for manuscript M3 (Tefsir of Ebu Suud), where it was found to be less water resistant compared to the other manuscripts. (p. 1222-1223).

Evidence

"Based on the elemental analysis of the spectrum 1 from the illuminated area, which corresponds to the ink of the analyzed region (red line), (Fig. 9 and Table 3), could be concluded that vermilion pigment (known as cinnabar, HgS) was used for the red ink manufacture."

Remarks

XRF elemental analysis revealed increased concentrations of Hg and S in manuscripts M1, M2, and M3. (p. 1222). In M3, the red ink was confirmed to contain Hg (19.53 Mas.%) and S (3.17 Mas.%) in Spectrum 1. (Table 3, p. 1223).