iron gall ink

Ingredients

H2O, Fraxinus Ornus bark, gall nuts, FeSO4·7H2O, Arabic gum

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Inside a glass container, the peel bark of “Fraxinus Ornus” were placed in water and remained for 2 weeks. The solution along with the crushed galls and ferrous sulfate were added inside a vessel to boil until half of the resulting mixture was left, which was filtered through a cloth. Subsequently grated gum arabic was added (p. 586).

Evidence

"First Recipe- DF (§47 “About making ink”) Dionysios of Fournas in the “Hermeneia of the Painting Art”... The produced ink was a glossy, velvety black, with a bluish-purple hue, which over time turned gray and gradually brown, whereas the gloss was lost."

Remarks

The Fraxinus Ornus bark initially turns the water blue, then dark brown-red due to gums and resins. The bark and young branches contain fraxin, tannins, polyphenols, and coumarin (p. 586). After ageing, an increase of fluorescence was observed in μ-Raman spectra (p. 584).