Mercury and silver

Ingredients

Mercury, Silver

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Metallic ink recipe recorded in 'Kitāb al-Iṣāba fī lawāzim al-kitāba' includes mercury and silver as primary metallic components to produce a grey metallic finish (p. 178).

Evidence

"grey metallic flakes were found at the end of Berlin, SBB, Spr 1918... Mercury and a small amount of silver were detected in the flakes, and recipes for making metallic inks that include these ingredients can be found in the treatise."

Remarks

The manuscript recording this text is the only surviving copy and was incomplete. The presence of physical flakes suggests that the manuscript served as a mnemonic aid during the actual ink-making process (p. 178).