8. CHAPTER VIII.
MEDIÆVAL INK.
INK SECRETAS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY COMPARED WITH EARLIER
ONES—APPEARANCE OF TANNO-GALLATE OF IRON INK IN THE TWELFTH
CENTURY—ITS INTRODUCTION LOCATES THE EPOCH WHEN THE MODERN INK OF
TO-DAY FIRST CAME INTO VOGUE—ITS APPROVAL AND ADOPTION BY THE FATHERS
OF THE CHURCH—THE INVENTION NOT ITALIAN BUT ASIATIC—ITS ARRIVAL FROM
ASIA FROM THE WEST AND NOT THE EAST—APPEARANCE ABOUT THE SAME TIME OF
LINEN OR MODERN PAPER—SETTLEMENT OF OLD CONTROVERSIES ABOUT ANCIENT
SO-CALLED COTTON PAPER-DE VINNE'S COMMENT ABOUT PAPER AND
PAPER-MAKING—CURIOUS CONTRACT OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
THE "Secretas" of the twelfth century, in so far as
they relate to methods of making ink, indicate many
departures from those contained in the more ancient
ones. Frequent mention is made of sour galls, aleppo
galls, green and blue vitriol, the lees of wine, black
amber, sugar, fish-glue and a host of unimportant materials
as being employed in the admixture of black
inks. Combinations of some of these materials are
expressed in formulas, the most important one of
which details with great particularity the commingling
together of an infusion of nut-galls, green vitriol (sulphate
of iron) and fish-glue (isinglass); the two first
(tanno-gallate of iron) when used alone, forms the sole
base of all unadulterated "gall" inks.
Dates are appended to some of these ink and other
formulas. The "tanno-gallate of iron" one has, however,
no date. But as it appears closely following
a date of A. D. 1126, it must have been written about
that time.
Documents, public and private, bearing dates nearly
contemporary with that era, written in ink of like
type, are still extant, confirming in a remarkable
degree the "Secreta" formula, and establishing the
fact that the first half of the twelfth century marks
the epoch in which the "gall" or modern ink of today
came into vogue.
Its adoption by the priests stamped it with the
seal of the Church and the arrival from the West
about the same period of flax or linen paper with the
added fact that these assimilated so well together,
later placed them both on the popular basis which
has continued to the present time.
While the Secreta which contains the "gall" ink
formula is of Italian origin, the invention of this ink
belongs solely to an Asiatic country, from whence in
gradual stages by way of Arabia, Spain and France,
it finally reached Rome. Thence, through the Church,
information about it was conveyed to wherever civilization
existed.
We are not confined in our investigations of ancient
MSS. to any particular locality or date, as the twelfth,
thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are prolific
of "gall" ink monuments covering an immense
territory. Such inks when used unadulterated, remain
in an almost pristine color condition; while the
other inks to which some pigment or color had been
added, probably to make them more agreeable in appearance
and more free-flowing, with a mistaken idea
of improving them, are much discolored and in every
instance present but slight indications of their original
condition.
The question of the character of the paper employed
during these eras, composed of different kinds
of fibrous vegetable substances, possesses some importance
when discussing its relationship to inks. Many
authors certify to the manufacture and use of "cotton"
in the eleventh, twelfth and later centuries.
Madan, however, in treating this subject, makes the
following comments which are in line with my own
observations:
"Paper has for long been the common substance for
miscellaneous purposes of ordinary writing, and has at all times been
formed exclusively from rags (chiefly of linen) reduced to pull), poured
out on a frame in a thin watery sheet, and gradually dried and given
consistence by the action of heat. It has been a popular belief, found
in every book till 1886 (now entirely disproved, but probably destined
to die hard), that the common yellowish thick paper, with rough fibrous
edge, found especially in Greek MSS. till the fifteenth century, was
paper of quite another sort, and made of cotton (charta bombycna,
bombyx being usually silk, but also used of any fine fibre such as
cotton). The microscope has at last conclusively shown that these two
papers are simply two different kinds of ordinary linen-rag paper."
De Vinne speaking, of paper and paper-making says:
"The gradual development of paper-making in Europe is but
imperfectly presented through these fragmentary facts. Paper may have
been made for many years before it found chroniclers who thought the
manufacture worthy of notice. The Spanish paper-mills of Toledo which
were at work in the year 1085, and an ancient family of paper-makers
which was honored with marked favor by the king
of Sicily in the year 1102, are carelessly mentioned by contemporary
writers as if paper-making was an old and established business. It does
not appear that paper was a novelty at a much earlier period. The bulls
of the popes of the eighth and ninth centuries were written on cotton
card or cotton paper, but no writer called attention to this card, or
described it as a new material. It has been supposed that this paper was
made in Asia, but it could have been made in Europe. A paper-like
fabric, made from the barks of trees, was used for writing by the
Longobards in the seventh century, and a coarse imitation of the
Egyptian papyrus, in the form of a strong brown paper, had been made by
the Romans as early as the third century. The art of compacting in a web
the macerated fibres of plants seems to have been known and practised to
some extent in Southern Europe long before the establishment of Moorish
paper-mills.
"The Moors brought to Spain and Sicily not an entirely new
invention, but an improved method of making paper, and what was more
important, a culture and civilization that kept this method in constant
exercise. It was chiefly for the lack of ability and lack of disposition
to put paper to proper use that the earlier European knowledge of
paper-making was so barren of results. The art of book-making as it was
then practised was made subservient to the spirit of luxury more than to
the desire for knowledge. Vellum was regarded by the copyist as the only
substance fit for writing on, even when it was so scarce that it could
be used only for the most expensive books. The card-like cotton paper
once made by the Saracens was certainly known in Europe for many years
before its utility was recognized. Hallam says that the use of this
cotton paper was by no means general or frequent, except in Spain or
Italy, and perhaps in the south of France, until the end of the
fourteenth century. Nor was it much used in Italy for books.
"Paper came before its time and had to wait for recognition.
It was sorely needed. The Egyptian
manufacture of papyrus, which was in a state of decay in the seventh
century, ceased entirely in the ninth or tenth. Not many books were
written during this period, but there was then, and for at least three
centuries afterwards, an unsatisfied demand for something to write upon.
Parchment was so scarce that reckless copyists frequently resorted to
the desperate expedient of effacing the writing on old and lightly
esteemed manuscripts. It was not a difficult task. The writing ink then
used was usually made of lamp-black, gum and vinegar; it it had but a
feeble encaustic property, and it did not bite in or penetrate the
parchment. The work of effacing this ink was accomplished by moistening
the parchment with a weak alkaline solution and by rubbing it with
pumice stone. This treatment did not entirely obliterate the writing,
but made it so indistinct that the parchment could be written over the
second time. Manuscripts so treated are now known as palimpsests. All
the large European public libraries have copies of palimpsests, which
are melancholy illustrations of the literary tastes of many writers or
bookmakers during the Middle Ages. More convincingly than by argument
they show the utility of paper. Manuscripts of the
Gospels, of
the
Iliad, and of works of the highest merit, often of great
beauty and accuracy, are dimly seen underneath stupid sermons, and
theological writings of a nature so paltry that no man living cares to
read them. In Some instances the first writing has been so thoroughly
scrubbed out that its meaning is irretrievably lost.
"Much as paper was needed, it was not at all popular with
copyists; their prejudice was not altogether unreasonable, for it was
thick, coarse, knotty, and in every way unfitted for the display or
ornamental penmanship or illumination. The cheaper quality, then known
as cotton paper, was especially objectionable. It seems to have been so
badly made as to need governmental interference. Frederick II, of
Germany, in the year 1221, foreseeing evils that might arise from bad
paper, made a decree by
which he made invalid all public documents that should be put on cotton
paper, and ordered them within two years to be transcribed upon
parchment. Peter II, of Spain, in the year 1338, publicly commanded the
paper-makers of Valencia and Xativa to make their paper of a better
quality and equal to that of an earlier period.
"The better quality of paper, now known as linen paper, had
the merits of strength, flexibility, and durability in a high degree,
but it was set aside by the copyists because the fabric was too thick
and the surface was too rough. The art of calendering or polishing
papers until they were of a smooth, glossy surface, which was then
practised by the Persians, was unknown to, or at least unpractised by,
the early European makers. The changes or fashion in the selection of
writing papers are worthy of passing notice. The rough hand-made papers
so heartily despised by the copyists of the thirteenth century are now
preferred by neat penmen and skilled draughtsmen. The imitations of
mediæval paper, thick, harsh, and dingy, and showing the marks of
the wires upon which the fabric was couched, are preferred by men of
letters for books and for correspondence, while highly polished modern
plate papers, with surfaces much more glossy than any preparation of
vellum, are now rejected by them as finical and effeminate.
"There is a popular notion that the so-called inventions of paper
and xylographic printing were gladly welcomed by men of letters, and
that the new fabric and the new art were immediately pressed into
service. The facts about to be presented in succeeding chapters will
lead to a different conclusion. We shall see that the makers of playing
cards and of image prints were the men who first made extended use of
printing, and that self-taught and unprofessional copyists were the men
who gave encouragement to the manufacture of paper. The more liberal use
of paper at the beginning of the fifteenth century by this newly-created
class of readers and book-buyers marks the period of transition and of
mental and mechanical development for which the crude arts of
paper-making and of black printing had been waiting for centuries. We
shall also see that if paper had been ever so cheap and common during
the Middle Ages, it would have worked no changes in education or
literature; it could not have been used by the people, for they were too
illiterate; it would not have been used by the professional copyists,
for they preferred vellum and despised the substitute.
"The scarcity of vellum in one century, and its abundance in
another, are indicated by the size of written papers during the same
periods. Before the sixth century, legal documents were generally
written upon one side only; in the tenth century the practice of writing
upon both sides of the vellum became common. During the thirteenth
century valuable documents were often written upon strips two inches
wide and but three and a half inches long. At the end of the fourteenth
century these strips went out of fashion. The more general use of paper
had diminished the demand for vellum and increased the supply. In the
fifteenth century, legal documents on rolls of sewed vellum twenty feet
in length were not uncommon. All the valuable books of the fourteenth
century were written on vellum. In the library of the Louvre the
manuscripts on paper, compared to those on vellum, were as one to
twenty-eight; in the library of the Dukes of Burgundy, one-fifth of the
books were of paper. The increase in the proportion of paper books is a
fair indication of the increasing popularity of paper; but it is obvious
that vellum was even then considered as the more suitable substance for
a book of value."
The curious contract belonging to the fourteenth
century which follows, is a literal copy of the original.
It does not seem to specify whether the book is to be
made of vellum or paper. In other respects the minute
details no doubt prevented any misunderstanding between
the contracting parties.
"August 26th, 1346—There appeared Robert Brekeling, scribe, and
swore that he would observe the contract made between him and Sir John
Forber, viz., that the said Robert would write one Psalter with the
Kalender for the work of the said Sir John for 5 s. and 6
d.; and in the same Psalter, in the same character, a
Placebo and a Dirige, with a Hymnal and Collectary, for 4
s. and 3 d. And the said Robert will illuminate
(`luminabet') all the Psalms with great gilded letters laid in with
colours; and all the large letters of the Hymnal and Collectary will he
illuminate with gold and vermillion, except the great letters of double
feasts, which shall be as the large gilt letters are in the Psalter.
And all the letters at the commencement of the verses shall be
illuminated with good azure and vermillion; and all the letters at the
beginning of the Nocturns shall be great uncial (unciales)
letters, containing V. lines, but the Beatus Vir and Dixit
Dominus shall contain VI. or VII. lines; and for the aforesaid
illumination and for colours he [John] will give 5 s. 6
d., and for gold he will give 18 d., and 2 s. for a
cloak and fur trimming. Item one robe—one coverlet, one sheet, and one
pillow."