This course, organized as a parallel event of the conference on "Ink Corrosion", will be dedicated to production, use and conservation of inks.
The course will include the preparation of various inks: a soot ink, two iron gall inks (one European, one Oriental), a mixed ink and some other ink-like writing substances such as bister, etc. The inks will be prepared following the instructions of old texts, which either have been translated or are read in the original version (for example, old German). The risk of misinterpretation will be highlighted. The inks will be prepared of substances which will be collected by the participants or prepared during the course, in any case they will be natural substances rather than bought at a shop.
Then the various inks will be applied by course participants on different carrier materials such as papyrus, parchment and paper with different surface treatment by different writing devices like reed pen and pen. This helps them understand how the different inks penetrate the various materials or how they stand on the surface and why.
The target is to understand inks as substances in terms of their dependence on natural components, their adhesion to carriers and their aging.
Finally, decay mechanisms and the ways of dealing with them in the course of conservation will be discussed.
Students will get a bibliography on inks in advance.
Course language: English
Lecturer: Patricia Engel
