Cinnabar

Ingredients

cinnabar

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The paper notes that red was used for the main reading, considered as the canonical one (p. 3). Recipes for the preparation of cinnabar for red inks are reported in Arabic mediaeval technical treatises dedicated to scribal practices (p. 9).

Evidence

"The XRF spectra of the red pigment present high counts of mercury, suggesting the use of cinnabar (Fig. 4b, c). This result is confirmed by the Raman spectrum of the pigment, with characteristic peaks at 254 cm−1 and 343 cm−1"

Remarks

Red dots mark the main reading and are primary vowel markers. In some cases, red dots overlap with previous stains, and physical-chemical deterioration has caused pigment transfers between pages (p. 3). Analysis on f. 4r, l. 2–3; f. 5r, l.1; f. 7v, ll. 1–5; f. 8v, l. 2; f. 10r, ll. 1–5; f. 10v, ll. 2–5.