Seite - 92 - in The Vienna Genesis - Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment
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92 Purple dyeing of parchment
cause the suspended particles have sunk to
the bottom of the container (Fig. 17). The
vat has to be kept warm and in a double
boiler during the whole process. It is im-
portant to constantly protect the vat from
larger amounts of oxygen (for example
through stirring) and sunlight. If wool or
other textiles are dyed, the vat’s temper-
ature of 45–48 °C is perfect, but for dyeing
parchment, the vat should be at maximum
25 °C. The vats for these experiments con-
sisted of snail glands with some adher-
ent flesh, rainwater and putrid urine. No
other chemicals, such as sodium hydrox-
ide or sodium dithionite, were used. With
the use of such chemicals, the reduction
would be achieved in one hour, whereas
the old-style vat takes about a week to
produce quality results. Two vats were pre-
pared, one made of frozen glands and one made of fresh glands. Each vat contained about
1.5–2 litres of liquid.
Application
Different types of parchment were dyed: Late Antique style lamb parchment by
Jiří Vnouček as well as lamb, adult sheep, hare, calf and deer of unknown origin. To make
handling of the pieces easier, cotton strings were attached, so that they could be moved
easily inside the vat. Before immersing the parchment into the vat, it was soaked in a mild
mixture of vinegar and water to ease the absorption of the dye. To obtain even results, it
is important to make sure that the pieces of parchment are not folded or sticking together
when immersed in the vat. The parchments were left for about one hour inside the vat,
which has to be protected from oxygen and light in this stage. After removing the parch-
ments from the vat, they were soaked in vinegar water again. The oxidation process can be
observed within a few minutes (Fig. 18).
The samples of parchment were dried stretched, using pins on a polystyrene board
(Fig. 19). The colours turned out intense and even and ranged from an almost pinkish
Fig. 17: Vat ready to dye in a double boiler.
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