The Simon and Hallsworth Visiting Professorship Distinguished Lecture-Professor Ira Rabin - Panorama of black writing inks: from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages
| Dates: | 1 February 2024 |
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| Times: | 17:00 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | John Rylands Library |
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| Who is it for: | General public |
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| Speaker: | Professor Ira Rabin |
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Join us for this online event exploring the science of written inks. Black writing inks in the period under consideration can be divided into three different classes: soot, tannin and iron-gall ink. The first one is a fine dispersion of carbon pigments in a water-soluble binding agent, the second one is a solution of plant extract from tree barks or gallnuts, while the third one contains both soluble and insoluble phases. This last ink is based on metal (iron) and is produced by a chemical reaction of soluble iron (II) with tannin in aqueous solution.
Tracing the transition from writing inks based on carbon pigments (soot or charcoal), common in Antiquity to the iron-gall inks commonly used in the Middle Ages builds a focus of our investigative work at the BAM (Federal Institute of Material Analysis and Testing) 1-5. With the aim of creating a detailed history of writing black inks, we worked out a non-invasive protocol to collect statistically relevant ink data from dated and localized manuscripts covering a large time span and different geographic areas.
To register for this online event please follow the link
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-simon-and-hallsworth-visiting-professorship-distinguished-lecture-tickets-779364148147
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