golden orpiment

Ingredients

W’RŠ’ (yellow dye plant), bile of a tortoise, golden orpiment, scissile alum, pomegranate peel, earth from Samos, saffron, egg white, water of gum, reddish wine

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The recipe calls for 1 part each of W’RS’ dye, tortoise bile, golden orpiment, scissile alum, dried pomegranate skin, earth from Samos, and saffron. These are combined with the white of five eggs and reduced to a paste. Before use for painting or writing, the paste is mixed with gum water or reddish wine (p. 94).

Evidence

"W’RŠ’ (a yellow dye plant... ), bile of a tortoise, golden orpiment (= Gr. ἀρσενικόν), scissile alum, inner part of the skin/peel of dried pomegranates, earth from Samos, saffron; for each of these (ingredients) take 1 part, and the white of 5 eggs, and reduce them to a paste."

Remarks

This is a complex non-metallic imitation of gold ink. The author notes that this recipe (R7) has clear similarities to the Mappae Clavicula (MC 50) and includes rare ingredients like earth from Samos (p. 98-99).