The examination of the Book of Kells using micro‐Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

The Book of Kells, Trinity College Dublin MS 58, is one of Ireland's greatest cultural treasures, and as such all aspects of its production have attracted academic attention. Until recently, studies of its dyes and pigments have relied exclusively on techniques such as visual and optical microscopic and spectroscopic examination, and comparison of the appearance of the pigment with specimens prepared using ancient or medieval recipes. These studies have yielded interesting results, but, due to the limitations of the examination techniques, they have remained incomplete and somewhat speculative. This article presents the results of a pigment analysis that took place between 2004 and 2006 using micro-Raman spectroscopy. In total, 681 sites over the 4 volumes of the Book of Kells were analysed using 2 separate laser wavelengths (632.8 and 532 nm), making this the most extensive Raman spectroscopic investigation of a single medieval manuscript. In this article several pigments are identified, in particular, blue (indigo), red-orange (red lead), yellow (orpiment), green (vergaut), black (carbon and iron gall ink), and white (gypsum). In addition, purple (orcein) is also discussed.

Colouring materials of pre-Columbian codices: non-invasive in situ spectroscopic analysis of the Codex Cospi

“…6IIa, shown Raman features which are characterised by the scattering signals of orpiment, arsenic trisulfide (As 2 S 3 ), at 310 and 355 cm e1 (Bioletti et al, 2009). In the Fig.…”

Raman spectroscopic analysis of an important Visigothic historiated manuscript

“…Orpiment was mixed with other pigments to produce other colours. For instance, mixing indigo and orpiment produced a deep green pigment known as vergaut [31]; this mixture was less deleterious to use on a manuscript compared with verdigris which could react with pigments such as orpiment and lead white and could result in parchment decay [32]. Cinnabar (HgS) has been used in Europe since Neolithic times.…”

Characterization of an ancient ‘chemical’ preparation: pigments and drugs in medieval Islamic Spain

“…The ceramic pot may also have been one of the objects to prepare ink because glazed pots were part of the apparatus used in the preparation (Levey, 1962). The use of orpiment as a pigment seems to have been more popular in medieval Arabic and European manuscripts (Sullivan, 1952;FitzHugh, 1997;Brown and Clark, 2004a, 2004b, 2004cClark and van der Weerd, 2004;Clarke, 2004;Daniilia and Andrikopoulos, 2007;Bioletti et al, 2009;Miguel et al, 2009;Aceto et al, 2010). Of the medieval coloured inks, orpiment is mentioned in several Islamic manuscripts (Levey, 1962) and has been detected in the Qairaw an manuscripts (Ayed et al, 1998), in an early-13th-century Arabic treatise (Chaplin et al, 2006), in other 14th-century Iraqi and Persian manuscripts (Fitz-Hugh, 1997), and in the illumination of five 16th-to18th-century Islamic manuscripts (Burgio et al, 2008).…”