Page - 263 - in Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert

263 illuminators’ matErials and tEchniquEs Mosaic gold in manuscripts Most of the materials mentioned so far were shared by illuminators and painters for centuries. The only new material to enter the illuminator’s palette in the 1200s was mosaic gold. Made of tin, mercury, sulphur and sal ammoniac, it is a yellow pigment with a sparkle. It was used for aesthetic reasons, not as a cheap substitute for gold. All of the examples in which we have identified it, from the 1200s to the 1500s, are deluxe manuscripts with large amounts of real gold. Though not as lust- rous as the precious metal, mosaic gold is easier to apply than gold leaf or shell gold. Shaded in green, red or brown, it adds to the range of colouristic, textural and light effects achieved with precious metals. The earliest use of mosaic gold identified so far is in a copy of Vegetius made c. 1265‒1272 for the future Edward I, predating the earliest known recipe by a century (pl. 15a).56 In an English Bible of the 1270s the drapery painted with mosaic gold is shaded with a copper-based green pigment, likely verdigris (pl. 15b).57 Next, mosaic 56 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS Marlay Add. 1. Scot McKendrick / John Lowden / Kathleen Doyle: Royal Manuscripts. The Genius of Illumination. London 2011, no. 125. For the earliest recipe, see Daniel V. Thompson / George H. Hamilton: De Arte Illu- minandi: the technique of manuscript illumination. An anonymous fourteenth-century treatise, translated from the Latin of Naples Ms XII.E.27, New Haven 1933, pp. 57‒58. 57 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 49. Panayotova, Colour (cit. n. 4), no. 41. pl. 15: Photomicroscopy details of mosaic gold in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 49, fol. 93v (b); Fitzwilliam Muse- um, MS Marlay Add. 1, fol. 86r (a), MS 2–1954, fol. 1r (c), Ms McClean 201.11d (d)