local

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Illumination in West African manuscripts comprised simple designs, often drawn from textile repertory, that could be worked out directly on the surface without cartoons or templates (p. 70).

Evidence

"The inks and pigments for text and illumination are also local, and there is no use of gold, a hallmark of fancier manuscripts produced elsewhere in the Maghrib."

Remarks

There is a notable absence of gold in these manuscripts, which the author calls 'ironic' given that gold was a major regional export (p. 70). Unlike Eastern or North African manuscripts, there was no clear division of labor between scribe and illuminator; the scribe often performed both tasks using local pigments (p. 70).