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Sophie Rabitsch, Inge Boesken Kanold, Christa Hofmann 89
colour can be directly used for painting, but not for dyeing, as it is water-insoluble101. In
order to process and make it useable for dyeing, time consuming processes of reduction
and oxidation have to take place102. The glands have to be fermented and the colorant has
to be reduced in alkaline conditions in order to achieve its soluble form. The dye can then
be absorbed by textiles or, in this case, parchment. In this state, the dyestuff is lime-green.
When the dyed material is removed from the vat and exposed to the air, the contact with
the oxygen reconverts the lime-green compounds into their purple water-insoluble form,
which is then bound to the fibres103.
Antique sources indicate that the origins of shellfish purple are located in the Near East,
in the Phoenician empire104. The city Tyre was so famous for the production and trade
of purple that the colour was named Tyrian purple105, a term still used today. The earli-
est archaeological traces were found for example in Crete (Greece, 1,900–1,700 B. C.)106,
Ugarit107 (Syria, 15th–13th century B. C.108) and Sarepta (Lebanon, around 1,350 B. C.)109. In
Antiquity, the marine snails were mainly fished in the Mediterranean Sea110. There were
different kinds of purple molluscs used by the ancient civilisations of the Mediterranean
and the Middle East: Bolinus brandaris, Hexaplex trunculus and Stramonita haemastoma111.
However, the use of molluscs is not unique to the Mediterranean world. Purple dyes were
extracted from molluscs along the Atlantic coasts of Europe, in South and Central Amer-
ica112 and in several ancient civilisations in Asia113. Caius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny
the Elder, described the production of the dye in his Natural History (Plin., HN IX, 38) 4:
The vein already mentioned is then extracted and about a sextarius of salt added to each
hundred pounds of material. It should be soaked for three days, for the fresher the extract,
101 Cardon, 2007, p. 4.
102 Quandt, 2018, p. 122.
103 Cardon, 2007, p. 4.
104 Bogensperger, 2015, pp. 158–159.
105 Schweppe, 1993, pp. 30–31.
106 Carannante, 2011, p. 11.
107 Schweppe, 1993, p. 31.
108 Barber, 1991, p. 229.
109 Quandt, 2018, p. 121.
110 Boesken Kanold, 2017, p. 67.
111 Cardon, 2007, pp. 566–586.
112 Several indigenous peoples in Central and South America dyed their textiles by rubbing the mucus
of the living snails directly onto the yarn. The technique is still practiced today. Cardon, 2007, pp.
557–558.
113 Cardon, 2007, p. 553. For molluscs used in other parts of the world, see Cardon, 2007, pp. 586–
604.
Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0
The Vienna Genesis
Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment
- Titel
- The Vienna Genesis
- Untertitel
- Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment
- Herausgeber
- Christa Hofmann
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- Wien
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-21058-0
- Abmessungen
- 17.3 x 24.5 cm
- Seiten
- 348