Page - 61 - in The Vienna Genesis - Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment

Jiří Vnouček, Sarah Fiddyment, Abigail Quandt, Sophie Rabitsch, Matthew Collins, Christa Hofmann 61 their conjoint folios, and all but six of the text pages58. The average dimensions of the folios are 300 x 250 mm yet they were clearly trimmed down, with some folios more irregular in size than others. While the text pages are sandwiched between glass and housed in double- sided wooden frames the illuminated folios and their conjoints (a total of eight folios) are currently housed in paper folders59. Given the limited access presented by the housings the thickness of the parchment could only be measured on four folios. The results ranged from 0.08 to 0.16 mm, with an average thickness of 0.13 mm60. Although these measurements are not representative of the parchment that comprises the bulk of the manuscript, they are very close to the values obtained for the Vienna Genesis (0.108–0.168 mm) and the Codex Rossanensis (0.05–0.19 mm). Based only upon a visual assessment the parchment of the Codex Sinopensis was identified as sheepskin. It shows all the same characteristics of Late Antique parchment described above: a very smooth and lustrous surface, an even appearance on both the hair and the flesh side, and a tendency for the hair side to curl dramatically upon exposure to air. The purple dye is darker and more saturated on the hair side and paler on the flesh side, although the variation in the intensity of the colour is much greater in the Codex Sinopensis than in the Vienna Genesis61. There are many 58 Access to the Codex Sinopensis was generously granted by Dr. Charlotte Denoël, Chief Curator of Manuscripts, and Dr. Christian Förstel, Curator of Greek Manuscripts at the BnF. 59 Two of the bifolios with miniatures are hinged into mats and therefore the thickness of the parch- ment could not be measured. 60 Although this could not be confirmed, there may be a coating present on both sides of the folios from an early restoration of the manuscript. If that is the case, the thickness measurements that were recorded include the coating. 61 The illuminated folios have clearly suffered from fading of the dye due to exposure to light during exhibition, although many of the text pages that are unlikely to have been displayed show a range of colours. Fig. 19: Detail of hair residues that are preserved in the parchment of the Codex Rossanensis. Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0