paper, parchment

Ingredients

pulp, alum, sulfur, vinegar, soap water, onion water, colocynth, lemon, white lead

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

While the exact pulp recipe is in the untranslated Chapter 11, the survey details paper treatment via erasure: 1. To annul writing: Yellow Yemenite alum, wild date, and yellow sulfur are pulverized and soaked in wine vinegar until they become like fat, then shaped like an acorn and rubbed on the paper (p. 69). 2. Removal from parchment: Soap water mixed with vinegar is distilled and written over letters; alternatively, water of distilled onion and water of distilled colocynth are used (p. 69). 3. White lead erasure: White lead, gum arabic, and white sulfur are pulverized and made into a ball to rub on writing (p. 69-70).

Evidence

"Chapter 11. On the making of paper and decorating of pens, 12. Description of leather bookbinding and the instruments used. ... On the making of erasure materials for writing on paper and parchment."

Remarks

The author notes that Arabic inks typically penetrated deeply into paper and parchment, necessitating the development of complex 'covering dyes' or chemical erasure fluids (p. 69). Chapter 9 specifically deals with annulling writing from manuscripts and bound books (p. 69).