Study of Iron Gall Inks, Ingredients and Paper Composition Using Non-Destructive Techniques

Abstract

Old manuscripts are among the most important elements of the cultural and historical heritage of ancient knowledge. Unfortunately, many of them suffer from degradation, mostly those written with iron gall inks. In the present work, a study using non-destructive techniques was designed with the aim of analyzing the elemental composition and structural characteristics of iron gall inks, reproduced in laboratory, paper and their interaction when the ink is deposited on paper, inducing the paper degradation. Proton induced X-ray emission, X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy provided the elemental and structural information, and photography under infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) light allowed the differentiation between manufactured inks. Results show that the first step of inked paper deterioration is due to acid-hydrolysis of the cellulose and the presence of reactive Fe(II) species by reducing the crystallinity index of the paper, which is affected depending on the ink recipe and the starting raw materials. These results will be useful to future studies on ancient documents written with iron gall inks, which suffer deterioration due to ink corrosion, and to differentiate between the different paper degradation mechanisms.

Contemporary approach in the study of a Byzantine-illuminated manuscript on parchment

“…Images of the inks and pigments of interest on the entire page were collected of each page in different wavelength bands, including ultraviolet (UV light 2 ), visible (tungsten light 3 ), at the limit of visible and near-infrared, and near-infrared light (incandescent light 4 ). The images were collected with two different cameras: Nikon D 5200 24-megapixel camera with Nikon Nikkor Af-S 18-55 mm zoom lens for images in visible light, and a Fujifilm XT-10 16-megapixel full-spectrum camera with Nikon Nikkon 50 f/1.8 lens.…”

From Traditional to Laser Cleaning Techniques of Parchment Manuscripts: A Review

“…Corregidor et al [49] mentioned that the main components of iron gall ink, besides iron (II) sulfate, are tannic acid, Arabic gum, and water. Gall oaks and gall nuts are the two types of galls containing gallotannic acid and gallic acid, which were used as tannic acid sources.…”

Arduino-controlled Reflectance Transformation Imaging to the study of cultural heritage objects

“…In the case of the manuscript, this set-up arises with the need of searching nondestructive techniques to analyse documents with irongall ink which suffers from foxing stains and degradation due to the ink and inappropriate storage conditions and manipulation. By using this technique as a first approach in the characterization, regions of interest can be easily found to be further studied by other non-destructive techniques [25][26][27]. In fact, due to the reproducibility of the RTI technique, it can be used as a method to study the progress of degradation over time and thus be able to take appropriate conservation and restoration procedures [24].…”

“…4c. They are probably related to ink acidity and endogenous factors, such as the acid hydrolysis of cellulose [25,26]. Figure 4d, e corresponds to a detail of the cover page, using Diffuse Gain rendering mode with raking light from the north side and Luminance Unsharp Masking rendering mode with raking light from the east side of the dome, respectively.…”