Pigments for illuminated manuscripts

[Tengu]

A new area of learning.

Just thinking about parchment is bad enough; but I think I can manage some inks.

The blue is woad.

The green is verdigris (I dont like this; can be acidic and might eat through the parchment in a few hundred years)

The white is alum (and not chalk, as I assumed)

Purple is lichen, but WHAT lichen???

Red is lead oxide, (acceptable) and yellow Arsenic oxide (not) What about ochres?

Any suggestions? things to swap?

 

[Billy-o]

Egg yolk for the temperas with mercury or cadmium sulfide for reds an oranges that just sing off the page.

Sadly the story of feeding mangoes to cattle and distilling their pee for a bright yellow isn't true. Maybe Donald Trump could include it in a court case and get the decision reversed.

 

[daveO]

I remember reading about oak galls being used to make ink after Toddy mentioned something about it a while ago.
http://www.medievalcodes.ca/2020/01/oak-gall-ink-explained.html

 

[plastic-ninja]

I’m sure I read somewhere( perhaps in the Trinity College in Dublin ) that the blue in the book of Kells was made from ground lapis lazuli & egg albumen, later replaced by gum sandarac & gum Arabic. Cheers It seems plausible as the colours are spectacular on that page. In the same vein, would malachite make a vibrant green?
I have used parchment for calligraphy and illumination but vellum is much more pleasant to write upon. Kelmscott even more so, but extremely expensive and difficult to obtain. Similarly interesting is the use of gold. I have used leaf but many manuscripts used “shell gold” made with gum and powdered gold so it can be applied with a nib.
It is a fascinating craft. I used to get paid for it a long time ago. Now it’s an occasional pastime.

 

[Toddy]

It's a fascinating topic and it's a lot of fun finding and making your own, from lakes to oil paints.
Excellent to hear from other much more experienced folks than me; do any of you search out your own pigments now ?

Cinnabar makes the brightest red, malachite makes a good green, not a dayglo green in my experience but it's a good green.

I have literally just sat down for a few minutes, but I have links that I'll add.
One is a lovely book by Victoria Finlay, called, "Colour; Travels through the paintbox", and it's her journeys to find the sources of the paints. From Afghanistan for the Lapiz Lazuli to Borrowdale for graphite
A most enjoyable read.

atb,
M