Table of Contents

[Title of this series of field notes]

Name: (Also the name of your working partner)

Date and Time:

2018.[Month].[Day], [hh]:[mm][am/pm]

Location:

Subject:

1. What is the main focus of your annotation - Tablets

   1. Material:

• Boxwood

• Ebony

• Sandalwood

• Ivory

• Gold

• Silver

• Cuttlefish bone

• Silverpoint

  1. Technique:

• Inlay ?

• Damascening

• Silverpoint/metalpoint?

  1. Terminology?

  2. Historical question?

1. What materials, tools, and techniques are part of your research?

   1. Identify the materials (source of all besides cuttlebone - CAMEO)

• Boxwood

תאשור - עץ המשמש להכנת תיבות

A dense, pale yellow wood from boxwood trees primarily of the genus Buxus. Although difficult to carve, the wood has excellent dimensional stability and is very wear resistant. The hard, fine-grain wood is often used for printing blocks, rulers, mallets, architects scales, slide rules, modeling tools and musical instruments. Boxwood is also used for small decorative items, inlays, games and engravings. Turkish boxwood, Buxus sempervirens, is favored for engraving blocks. Some other varieties are:
- Buxus japonica: Japanese boxwood
- Buxus macowanii: African boxwood or cape boxwood
- Buxus microphylla: Formosa boxwood
- Buxus sempervirens: Turkish boxwood or common boxwood
- Buxus balearica: Balearic boxwood or Minorca boxwood
- Gonioma kamassi: kamassi boxwood

• Ebony

הבנה

Any of trees of the genus Diospyros, with very dark, hard, heavy heartwood. These trees are native to Africa (black or Gaboon ebony, D.dendo), to India and Ceylon (D.ebenum), east India (Coromandel or Macassar ebony, D.melanoxylon), Sri Lanka (Calamander ebony, D.quaesita). Ebony's dense, smooth-grain wood has been valued from the earliest times and was imported to Egypt from Nubia and the Sudan (Kuhn 1986). It is extremely durable and resistant to rotting, fungi and powder post beetles. Ebony, even though it is difficult to work and carve, is valued for decorative items, inlay work, black piano keys, musical instruments, and tool handles. It is rarely found in large pieces.
Several other dark, heavy woods from unrelated species are also called ebony because of their color. These are: green ebony (cocuswood), brown ebony (coffeewood), blue ebony and Mozambique ebony (African blackwood).

• Sandalwood

אלגום - עץ ריחני הגדל בהודו

A brick-red wood obtained from sandalwood trees (Pterocarpus santalinus; ) native to tropical Asia. Sandalwood has a fine-grain with a straight or wavy pattern. The wood has been used for making cabinets and violins. It is also sold in blocks or chips for dye preparation. Sandalwood dye contains santalin as the primary colorant. It is soluble in alcohol but not in water. The fugitive color has been used for textiles and for tanning leather. Similar water insoluble dyes are obtained from barwood, camwood, and narrawood.

• Ivory

Long, curved elephant tusks that are rootless, non-enameled incisors. The size and structure of a tusks depends on the animal, its age and its living conditions. Tusks as long as 6-8 feet have been obtained from African elephants. The Indian elephants produce tusks about 4-5 feet long. Ivory is a relatively soft, workable but durable material that is white to pale yellow in color. Elephant tusks are primarily composed of dentin, a hard calcareous material composed of calcium hydroxyapatite and protein with small amounts of calcium carbonate, calcium fluoride, and magnesium phosphate. A new layer of dentin is added each season. This produces a layered ring structure that can be seen in fresh ivory. Deteriorated ivory tends to flake and peel along these lines. Ivory was widely traded from prehistoric times. It was considered valuable by all cultures and widely used in utilitarian objects, jewelry, sculpture, seals, game-pieces, furniture, marquetry and scientific instruments. Ivory reached its peak periods of use in the 13th and 14th centuries. From 1976 to 1989, more than 100 nations banned ivory imports from the Asian elephant; African elephant ivory was added to the ban in 1989. Mammoth ivory is not banned.

• Gold

A soft, inert, shiny yellow metallic element that is beautiful and easy to work. Gold has been highly valued and used for artifacts since before 5000 BCE. Alluvial deposits were used in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, India, and China. In medieval Europe, most gold was obtained from Saxony and Austria. Major gold deposits have been found in South Africa, Columbia, Australia, Russia, Canada (Yukon) and the U.S.(California). Native gold, found in quartz veins (vein gold) and alluvial deposits (placer gold), generally contains some silver and copper. The present main world producers are : China, Australia, United States, Russia, South Africa, Peru, Canada, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Ghana. Gold is purified by dissolution in mercury or cyanide solutions, by melting, or by electrodeposition. The purity of commercial gold is expressed in karats which is the number of parts of gold in 24 parts of the alloy. Gold is extremely malleable and can be pressed into a continuous film of 0.1 micrometer thickness. Gold is primarily used for monetary systems and for jewelry. Other uses for gold include conductor in electrical devices, dentistry, as a pigment in paints and ceramics and for gilded decoration.

• Silver

A soft, white, ductile metallic element. Silver is widely distributed throughout the world. It occurs rarely as metallic silver (Peru, Norway) but more often as silver-gold alloys (electrum) and silver ore (galena, cerargyrite, pyrargyrite, argentite). Today silver is obtained as a byproduct in the refinement of gold, lead, copper, or zinc ores. The largest current producers of silver are : Peru, Mexico, China, Australia, Russia, Bolivia, Chile, United States, Poland, Kazakhstan. Silver was smelted from galena as early as 3800 BCE. Another early method for refining gold or silver was called cupellation by which the ore was placed in a small cup then exposed to high heat in air; the base metals oxidized while the precious metals melted and were poured off. As a pure metal, silver is second to gold in malleability and ductility. It can be polished to a highly reflective surface. Since pure silver is too soft for many decorative items it is most often prepared as an alloy - sterling silver (925 parts silver and 75 parts copper). Alloys containing less that 90% silver cannot be stamped as silver. Silver is used for jewelry, coinage, photography, mirrors, electrical contacts, and tableware.

• Cuttlefish bone

Source: Wikipedia: Cuttlebone, also known as cuttlefish bone, is a hard, brittle internal structure (an internal shell) found in all members of the family Sepiidae, commonly known as cuttlefish, a family within the cephalopods.

In the past, cuttlebones were ground up to make polishing powder, which was used by goldsmiths. The powder was also added to toothpaste, and was used as an antacid for medicinal purposes or as an absorbent. They were also used as an artistic carving medium during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Today, cuttlebones are commonly used as calcium-rich dietary supplements for caged birds, chinchillas, hermit crabs, reptiles, shrimp, and snails. These are not intended for human consumption.
It can also be used in the process of pewter casting, as a mould.

From CAMEO - cuttlebone: The crushed bone of a cuttlefish which is a mollusk of the family Sepiidae. Cuttlebone is calcareous mixture used primarily as a jewelry polish. Pieces of cuttlebone have also been imprinted with a pattern then used as small molds for making jewelry.

Hazards and Safety: Moderately toxic by inhalation.

• Silverpoint

A silver tool used for drawing in metal point. When a silver mark is made on a ground, the metal particles tarnish to form a black mark of silver sulfide. In the late 15th century, silver points were used to add contours and shadows (Kuhn 1986).

(additional meaning: The melting point of silver (960.8). The silver point is used as the fixed point on the international temperature scale.)

• Metal Point:

A metal tool used for drawing on a paper or parchment support which has been covered by a ground. As the point moves across the ground, it leaves behind a thin layer of metal. The thin metal quickly oxidizes. For example, silver point becomes the brownish grey of tarnished silver and lead point becomes quite dark. The marks made are quite permanent, and the colored ground may be more light-sensitive than the design. Metal points are often prepared from soft metal such as silver, gold, and lead, but may be made from many other metals such as bronze, copper, or aluminium. Metal point has been used by artists from the 15th century to the present day.

1. What is their availability?

2. Modern use of the material?

3. Safety

• Safety and workflow protocols

1. Manuscript research

   1. Place of individual recipe in the larger manuscript

   2. Relation to other recipes

More words I searched

The manuscript page - looks like a short passage, no marginal notes. No corrections.

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1. Historical research

   1. Recipe genealogy

   2. Comparison to other Ms. Fr. 640 recipes and to other prior or contemporaneous sources

   3. Historical background

2. Object research

   1. Evidence of techniques/materials described in museum objects

   2. Examples of intended outcomes of recipes

      1. What is the date and place of these objects? (Try to locate objects that are regionally and temporally relevant--late sixteenth-century France)

MATERIALS, TOOLS, AND TECHNIQUES:

• Historical identification:

  • Historical names of materials and tools may have multiple meanings, and if you are working from a translation, there are further considerations in identifying the materials described in your recipe.

  • You will also need to determine how the identity of your materials will affect your annotation. How important is the investigation of the material characterization to your annotation question and to the exploration of your recipe? This will help you decide how detailed your investigation should be.

  • More comprehensive investigation may be necessary if:

    • Your annotation focus is the materials

    • Your recipe is very simple with very few materials

    • Your recipe is dependent on more sensitive or delicate chemistry

  • Questions to consider:

    • What are the words used in the original French and how have they been translated?

    • What could the terminology be describing in the 16th century? Is there more than one material described by this word? Is there more than one word to describe a material?

    • Could the author-practitioner be using terminology or materials unconventionally or even erroneously? Compare to other recipes.

• Modern identification:

  • Many modern materials use a historical name to refer to something completely different from the original. For example, “ultramarine” is used today as a standardized color, but historically this term was a pigment of finely ground lapis lazuli.

  • Once you have determined the historical identification of your material, determine what the modern equivalent might be and whether there are any possible terminology confusions.

  • It is important to thoroughly research your source materials to ensure what you plan to use is appropriate.

  • Make sure to consider the product’s chemical makeup, synthesis, etc and the historical research you have conducted on the materials you are looking for.

  • Sometimes a substitution (that is cheaper, easier to find, etc) might be ok in context. Some questions to consider in determining this:

    • What is the role of the material in your recipe? How important is the exact chemical makeup of the materials?

    • How does it behave in relation to other materials?

    • How does it react with other materials?

Sources to look at:

Thea Burns. The Luminous Trace: Drawing and Writing in Metalpoint. London: Archetype Publications, 2012.

H.Kuhn, Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art and Antiquities, Butterworths, London, 1986.

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.02, 10:30pm

Location: Home

Subject: Experimenting with metalpoint on paper

I tried to sketch / draw with 4 metalpoint styli - silver, lead, copper, tin mixed with lead 8:1 -

on 3 pieces of paper with different grounds:

1. Rabbit Skin Glue [RSG] and bone ash ground:

Lead left the darkest color on the paper. It felt a little cumbersome to use it, as if there is a resistance to the movement of my hand. I could smudge it easily with my finger.

Silver was easier to draw with, and produced finer lines. I was able to smudge it as well.

Copper was very thin and gentle. I was surprised that the color of the lines was not red, but grey. The copper didn’t smudge.

The tin and lead was easier to use than the lead alone and created finer lines. Could be smudged easily.

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1. RSG, bone ash and green ochre ground:

All metals were almost invisible. The most visible one was lead. The lines can be seen better than with no ground at all, but only when examined carefully and closely. I could smudge them all easily. It is as if the ground didn’t manage to hold the metal almost.

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1. RSG and Champagne chalk ground:

The copper was almost invisible on it. The other metals worked well. The tin and lead felt again easier to handle than the pure lead. I could not smudge any of the materials.

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1. On the back of the first piece of paper I tried the metalpoints without a ground.

The only one that remained on the paper was the lead.

The rest of them left scratches on the paper.

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Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.03, 1:00 pm

Location: Home

Subject: Reading secondary literature

While reading Thea Burns’s The Luminous Trace: Drawing and Writing in Metalpoint, I noticed that she describes my exact feeling when experimenting writing/drawing with leadpoint and lead-tinpoint:

“A stylus made of lead mixed "with tin flows much more readily and smoothly when manipulated by hand than a stylus of pure lead and, in my experience, is much more satisfactory to draw with.” (p. 8).

I’m glad that I started experimenting before I read it, so I can say that my experience was not influenced by the author’s words, and nevertheless was very similar.

Burns has an interesting question - and answer:

“That many metalpoint drawings are, in fact, executed in mixed media suggests to the modern observer that artists, frustrated with the limited expressive potential of metalpoint alone, chose to enrich it with other, more versatile methods of drawing. Why did they bother to draw at all with harder metal styli, in preparation for which they had to take the time and effort to ground their paper or purchase an already-grounded product? Convinced of artists' basic pragmatism -after all, they were competing in a lively and highly competitive marketplace- I question why they selected metal point when another drawing material would have been as effective pictorially, and quicker and easier to use than metalpoint.” (p. 13) (emphasis mine)

Burns suggests that: “the evidence of the work of contemporary artists in metalpoint, explored in Chapter 7, suggests that the uncompromising linearity found in metalpoint drawings during the Quattrocento bears witness to artistic choice, not to limitation inherent in the technique [...] the Renaissance artist's investment in his evolving status- his aspirations to move in humanist circles and his and his patrons' sympathy for the rediscovered forms and perceived artistic value of classical antiquity -awakened a desire and furnished him with the resources to attempt the reconstruction of the appearance of ancient drawing.” (p.15) (emphasis mine)

Stacey Sell and Hugo Chapman, eds., Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns (Washington [DC] : London : Princeton: National Gallery of Art ; The British Museum ; Princeton University Press, 2015)

Kimberly Schenck writes in her chapter:

“Boxwood, a dense and fine-grained wood, provided an especially smooth, even-textured, and sturdy base for the highly detailed metalpoint drawings found in early model or pattern books (fig. 4). Because of its durability, boxwood allowed repeated scrubbing away of unwanted

sketches, and, if necessary, subsequent recoating before drawing on the surface again.” (p. 12) (emphasis mine)

It means that boxwood, as opposed to paper, allowed erasing and recoating the surface. The cuttlefish bone may not be able to erase silverpoint from paper, but it might be possible to erase boxwood tablet.

Burns raises Van de Wetering’s assumption that young artists’ apprenticeship included drawing on erasable tablets, and hence did not survive until today. (p. 141-143)

To look at footnotes 175, 182, 185.

Burns discusses the common use of tablets by merchants throughout Europe, and later by musicians, writers, and others, as a portable easy to hold and write with the ink-less stylus.

“By the end of the sixteenth century writing tablets with erasable surfaces were mass produced. They became a staple of the publishing trade and, although they were ephemeral and are now rare, many editions in a range of size and qualities were evidently for sale.” (p. 144)

Look at footnotes 193, 195.

Page 145-146: mentions of books with recipes of tablets - to compare.

To do list:

• Read chapter two on ancient tablets - to find information on tablets in the Middle East.

• Search where to find and how to buy a boxwood tablet.

• Try writing on a boxwood tablet with silverpoint.

• Try to erase with cuttlefish bone.

• Compare recipes from other books (including Cennini).

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.05, 3:00 pm

Location: Avery Library

Subject: Searching for and scanning materials

I scanned chapters 2-3 of The Luminous Trace. I couldn’t find any mention of the technique’s use in the Middle East beyond the ancient era.

I scanned also a few other articles and chapters from Burns’s references.

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.07, 2:15 pm

Location: Fayerweather

Subject: Meeting Professor Tunç Şen

I spoke with Professor Sen about the annotation project and asked him some questions.

He argues that he didn’t encounter any mentions of wooden tablets in his work on the making of Islamic manuscripts. There was a tool named mistara (Ar. مسطرة) that scribes used - a wooden block marked with lines, which they would place under the paper, so that they could see the lines through the paper, and write straight.

Sen argues that we would be able to find many manuscripts that collected works on miscellaneous subjects (Tr. mecmua, Ar. مجموعة), some include recipes for medicines, but no systematic research has been done on them. There is also a lacuna in the research on subjects such as the process of apprenticeship in the Ottoman period, or the material aspects of printing Arabic script.

Sen gave me a few suggestions and references to examine:

• Islamic Codicology: an Introduction to the Study of Manuscripts in Arabic Script / Deroche

• Arabic Manuscripts: a Vademecum for Readers / Adam Gacek

• Look at the works of Zeren Tanındı about manuscript production

• Look at : islamicmanuscripts.info

• Look for Islamic wooden objects at the MET

• Check https://islamicbooks.hypotheses.org/author/islamicbooks (Dagmar Riedel from Columbia) - see what there is in the lithography collection at Columbia’s library

• Look up at the Encyclopedia of Islam: cevhername

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.12, 12:15 pm

Location: Class

Subject:

What do I need to do next:

• Compare with other recipes

• Cennini, the Anglo-Latin Secretum philosophorum [Clarke], Mayerne

• Build the reconstruction:

• Decide which ground to use - what are the ingredients?

• How to get boxwood

• What else do I need?

• Look/ find in the lab inventory: cuttlefish bone, silverpoint (and other metal points)

• What tools do I need? Brush,

• What are the possible ways the reconstruction would progress? What could happen?

• Think of the possible shortcuts / compromises that I might need to take

• Write how to manage the waste

• Continue reading materials from the dropbox

Where to buy boxwood?

Suppliers from the UK

http://www.chrisdaunt.com/products-services/

https://www.lawrence.co.uk/standardcheckout/stage/loginregister

https://www.woodengravers.co.uk/getting-started/suppliers/

https://intaglioprintmaker.com/category/endgrain-woodblocks - boxwood out of stock

Can I find something from the US???

Not true boxwood, might be a good substitute if I can’t find anything else: around 16$ for a piece

https://www.cookwoods.com/collections/boxwood-castello

Name: (Also the name of your working partner)

Date and Time:

2018.11.14, 3:00 pm

Location: Home

Subject: searching boxwood

I sent a message to John Stein through his website https://www.johnsteins.com/

Dear John Stein,

My name is Sahar, I am a Ph.D. student in history at Columbia University.

I am taking part in a great project called - the making and knowing project (https://www.makingandknowing.org/), where we reconstruct recipes from a 16th-century French manuscript, including printing recipes.

I am researching a technique of writing on tablets that is mentioned in the manuscript.

I was wondering whether you would be able to assist me in understanding how to find a small piece of real boxwood that I could use to reconstruct that technique.

I would appreciate any advice!

Thank you very much!

Sahar Bostock

I sent an email to Chris Daunt:

Dear Chris Daunt,

My name is Sahar, I am a Ph.D. student in history at Columbia University.

I am taking part in a great project called - the making and knowing project, where we reconstruct recipes from a 16th-century French manuscript, including printing recipes.

I am researching a technique of writing on boxwood tablets with metalpoint.

I am searching for a small piece of real boxwood that I could use to reconstruct that technique.

I understand that you make boxwood blocks.

Before I purchase a block I wanted to make sure that you have real boxwood at the moment, and to ask how long would it take to send it to the US?

I would appreciate your answer,

Thank you very much!

From his website I know that 5*10 cm block would cost 21 pounds, and the delivery to the US is additional 10 pounds.

Chris’s answer (Nov 14)

Dear Sahar,

Thanks for getting in touch. I'll be happy to help, and can reassure you that I use genuine Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens). The stock I use at the moment is from the Chilterns (Buckinghamshire) and is from trees between 200 and 300 year old.

Depending on the size of the block you order, I could have it ready in 3 or 4 days.

Let me know if I can be of further help,

Chris

Checked the link Dick Blick item 40453-1057 from the lab inventory, the source of wood blocks - no boxwood blocks there.

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.15, 3:30 pm

Location: Home

Subject: Erasing with cuttlefish bone

I tried to erase the marks that I made on the pieces of paper with different grounds on them (see above, 11.02) using a whole cuttlefish bone.

I was very surprised to discover that the cuttlefish bone managed to erase lines from the paper!

I tried both sides of the bone - the hard side only smudged the lead a little bit. When I rubbed the soft side of the bone on the paper, it started to crumble, but at the same time it gradually erased the metalpoint lines.

The finest lines were more easy to erase. The stronger lines were weakened but did not disappear. I think that the more I pressed the metalpoint when I draw the lines, the more I had to press the bone and rub it strongly to erase it.

Silver and copper were erased much easier than lead and tin-lead alloy.

The ground was also an important variant - the green ground (which was harder to draw on) was more difficult to erase.

The papers and cuttlefish bone before:

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The results:

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Important conclusion:

If metalpoint could be erased from paper, it undermines my estimation that tablets were used because they were easier to erase.

I should confirm or refute that estimation eventually after reconstruction.

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.16, 12:00 pm

Location: Avery Library

Subject: Comparing recipes + building workflow

Cennini: (Thompson’s translation)

Cennini has a recipe for a ground for a boxwood panel.

Ingredients: bone ash, saliva. Tools: hands.

Process: Clean the panel with water. Rub it with cuttlefish bone to smooth it. (Grind bone to make ash - will skip that step). Mix bone ash with saliva. “Spread it all over the little panel with your fingers; and, before it gets dry, hold the little panel in your left hand, and tap over the panel with the finger tip of your right hand until you see that it is quite dry.” (tr. Thompson, p. 4)

Additional important notes from Cennini:

Erasing techniques: 1. Saliva (for erasing any metal from white-lead parchment tablet, p.4-5, footnote) 2. Bread crumbs (for erasing lead from paper with no ground, p.8).

Metal points - explanation in p. 5.

Secretum philosophorum (Glasgow MS Hunterian 110) - Mark Clarke, p. 59

Recipe “To make white tablets [for writing]”

A recipe for whitening calf parchment with linseed oil mixed with white lead (until it shall be thin, but still white). (very similar to the recipe in the footnotes of Thompson’s translation of Cennini, quoted from another manuscript).

A following recipe of glue for attaching parchment to wood implies that the whitened parchment was then glued to a wood tablet.

Alcherius in Merrifield p. 274-276

A recipe “To prepare parchment, or paper, primed panels, and linen, […] to draw upon them in black, with a pencil or stile [stylus] of gold, silver […] as is done upon panels of boxwood whitened or covered with bone or stag’s horn burnt and whitened in the fire”

Mix bone/horn ash “with size made from glue or from clipping of white leather of parchment…”

Brush it on the paper / wooden panel, one or two layers (let it dry each time before applying another one).

What about a tablet with wax?

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.19, 12:00 pm

Location: Fayerweather 513

Subject: Boxwood supply

I called John Stein who said that he didn’t see my email. He suggested to check McClain’s supply - I already checked their website and didn’t find any boxwood, but now sent them an email to make sure. http://www.imcclains.com/contactus.html

He said that the best place to find boxwood would be in England, and gave me the name of TN Lawrence, which I also already checked, https://www.lawrence.co.uk/product/60-x-75mm-boxwood-block

He said that he has some boxwood and could send me something but they have a postal strike now so it’s not the best idea to count on it.

The answer from McClain’s:

We do not carry boxwood. The Wood Engraver's Network lists one person who supplies it: https://woodengravers.org/printexchange/supplies/ The only substrate we offer for engraving is Resingrave, which is inexpensive, readily available and works well: http://www.imcclains.com/catalog/blocks/resingrave.html

I send an email to Chris Daunt and to Lawrence to find out how long it would take until the block would be delivered in New York.

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.27, 1:00 pm

Location: Home

Subject: Metal point components

From Dahm (p. 80):

“Due to variations in metallurgical practices, medieval and Renaissance references to bronze and brass should be interpreted as alloys with a high copper content and not assumed to be pure copper-tin or copper-zinc alloys as they are considered today.”

P. 81:

“The texts describe a process by which silver was recovered from ores and workshop sweepings by crushing and mixing with liquid mercury. The mercury would react with silver to form a solid amalgam that was collected by sieving the mixture through a porous cloth or skin. References indicate that practitioners mistook the solid amalgam for pure silver. If the amalgam were heated and reworked the mercury would have been driven off, but it is possible some mercury was introduced to silver supplies inadvertently via this misconception.”

...

“The literature generally states that silver may be extracted from ores by smelting with lead. This ancient procedure involves heating silver-lead alloys and driving lead off as a vapour. A more specific method for separating metals by combining lead with silver is described in La Pirotechnia.zo Ores containing lead, copper, silver and gold were mixed with quantities of lead and formed into cakes, placed over a grate, and heated slowly to a red glow. Lead would melt first and flow away carrying with it silver and gold and leaving behind copper. Silver and gold would be separated from the lead later by other means. No methods are described that employ copper to separate or purify silver, but alloying silver with copper was a common practice described in all texts. A typical alloy was twelve parts silver and one part copper. The addition of copper rendered silver harder and reduced its cost.”

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.29, 4:30 pm

Location: Lab

Subject: Metalpoint composition and sourcing

I discussed the subject of metalpoint with Tianna. Since I have only a small piece of boxwood (50 x 100 mm), and if I wanted to divide it to 3 ground x 4 metalpoints x 4 erasing methods = I would need 48 section on the boxwood. That would leave really small room for each section.

In addition it seems that it is difficult to discern the exact amount of silver in silverpoints from the 14-16 centuries. They could be mixed with mercury or with copper. Dahm mentions that it was common to mix 12 parts of silver with 1 part of copper (p. 81).

We don’t know the proportions of silver in the metalpoint that we have from the summer workshop.

In addition, I am mostly interested in the use of silverpoint, since this is the metal that is mentioned in the manuscript. I use recipes from other books to reconstruct the ground, and these recipes mention other types of metals, but I don’t really need to try all metals to understand the manuscript. I can also mention in my annotation that this is a potential direction to take in future research.

Consequently, I decided to try to source pure silver, and silver+copper alloy (12:1 if possible), and not to try copper, lead, and lead+tin. (We do have these metalpoints in case I regret it).

I also decided not to try erasing with saliva, since this is a technique that is mentioned in Secretum philosophorum (Glasgow MS Hunterian 110) - Mark Clarke, p. 59, but I am not using this recipe for a ground (linseed oil and white lead).

To conclude:

I will use two types of silverpoint = 2

2 ground + no ground = 3

2 erasing methods + one control = 3

That leaves me with 18 sections on the boxwood.

I will go to the makerspace training session at 6:00 pm to get the training that I need to cut the boxwood block into two. (hopefully will finish it today, but might need more specific training with a super user)

Sources for silverpoint:

A blog about metalpoint drawings.

Metal points from London

Silverpoint stylus from Amazon (17.53 $)

Silverpoint from California (11 $)

Another source - don’t know where from

• Send emails to all of them - to ask about the silver source (pure silver and an alloy with copper)

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.29, 6:00 pm

Location: Makerspace, Mudd Hall, 12th floor

Subject: Trying to cut the boxwood block

I went to the makerspace's safety training, it was very short.

I asked some of the superusers there which tool would be the best for cutting the boxwood block.

We tried the metal band saw but the block is too thin to be held in it, so it couldn't work.

The superuser offered me to use a hand saw.

I remembered that Tianna said that there are saws in the lab so I thought that it would be better to do it there, although I don't think that a hand saw would do the best job.

The superuser also said that there is a vertical band saw that would be good for that, but not in the makerspace. He knows that some research labs in the university has that.

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Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.11.30, 5:00 pm

Location: Home

Subject: French - English Dictioneries

According to: Claudius Hollyband, A Dictionarie French and English (London 1593)

P. 242 in the pdf (no page numbers in the book?):

“Tablette, a little table: f.”

According to: Randle Cotgrave, Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (London 1611).

“Tablette: f. A little table, or boord; also a childes borne-booke.

Tablettes. Writing tables; also, the scales of a Hawks legs; also, Losenges, ministred in Physick.”

“Tableau: m. A picture; a table whereon things be painted, or written; a writing table; memoriall, register.”

“Table: f. A table; a long and square boord; a table, or boord to eat on; the table, or counter of Bankers, and Marchants; the Table, or Index of a booke; also, a Chesse-boord, or that whereon we play at Tables; also, a (square) plate of mettall; also, food, fare, diet, victualls (?), meat and drinke; In Law, the Fief, demaine, whole Seigniorie, or intire bodie of estate in land, belonging to a Lord, ?cl; whence, Mettre, & vnir, en fa.”

From Oxford English Dictionary

Table:

“Etymology: In Old English < classical Latin tabula (see below); subsequently reinforced by Anglo-Norman tabul, tabull, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French, French table (also Old French (Walloon, Picardy) taule) piece of furniture with a flat raised top and one or more legs (c1050 with reference to such a piece of furniture on which food is served, end of the 12th cent. with reference to use for other purposes), (in plural) game of backgammon or a similar game (c1100), tablet of stone or other material bearing or intended to bear an inscription (c1170), board, plate, plank, slab (c1175), table on which the elements are placed for Holy Communion (c1175 in les tables des autex , plural), writing tablet (end of the 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman), any of the tablets on which certain specific collections of laws were inscribed, (hence) the laws themselves (end of the 12th cent. in les taules Moysi , plural), meal taken at a table, also the food and drink provided for this meal (both first half of the 13th cent.), penance or repentance as the salvation of a sinner (second quarter of the 13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), list, register, tabulated arrangement (late 13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman, apparently originally in table des matires table of contents; late 15th cent. with reference to a mathematical table (in this sense, frequently in plural)), board on which backgammon is played (13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), thin slab used to cover parts of a building (1321), board on which a picture is painted (1360 and 1644 in two apparently isolated attestations), either of the two dense bony layers of the skull (1377 in a translation of Lanfranc), (in palmistry) the space between the table line and the natural line (second half of the 14th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), cornice (a1419 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), index of a book (first half of the 15th cent.), gem cut with a large flat upper surface surrounded by small facets (second half of the 15th cent. in table de dyamant ), this surface itself (beginning of the 16th cent.), synopsis, conspectus (1631), tableland, plateau (1690), flat surface used in an industrial process (1723) < classical Latin tabula flat board, plank, door-panel, painted tablet, painting, board to play on, tablet of stone or metal, votive tablet, writing tablet, written tablet, piece of writing, document, deed, list, account, in post-classical Latin also flat piece of ground (5th cent.), communion table (9th cent. (c1093 in a British source) as tabula altaris , 1537 in a British source as tabula are , both lit. ‘table of the altar’), sheet of lead (10th cent.; 1086, c1210 in British sources), piece of furniture on legs used for meals, etc. (frequently from c1080 in British sources), board for games such as chess, backgammon, or draughts, game played on such a board, astronomical table (from 12th cent. in British sources), dense bony layer of the skull (a1296 (in Lanfranc) or earlier), provision of food (from 1296 in British sources), upper horizontal surface of a gem (1387 in a British source in in tabula in table), coping, cornice (1447 in a British source in tabula lapidea , lit. ‘stone table’), of uncertain origin; perhaps a loanword. “

Contextualizing the recipe in the manuscript:

Times material is mentioned in the manuscript:

Boxwood - 8

Paper - 106

Parchment - 10

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.12.03, 1:00 pm

Location: Class

Subject: Silver alloy

From CAMEO:

Contemporary sterling silver is “a silver alloy that contains no more than 7.5% of other metals, usually copper. Pure silver is too soft for most purposes and the addition of copper hardens the silver and lowers the melting point. Sterling silver has been used in coinage, tableware, and solid silver objects. The name 'sterling' was first used for the 0.925 grade of silver in 13th century England.”

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.12.04, 4:30 pm

Location: Barnard theater workshop

Subject: Cutting the boxwood

Greg from Barnard’s theater workshop helped a lot with cutting the boxwood block with a table saw. He said that we would lose some material if we cut it, so I decided that it would be better to cut if into two halves than to three pieces.

After cutting the block, it was burned from the heat of the saw (? if I understood correctly) and had a dark brown color on the surface where it was sawed. Greg used a sanding machine to smooth the block and get rid of the dark brown mark.

The block was very smooth even before he used the sanding machine.

After sanding, the edges were also smooth.

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Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.12.06, 11:40 am

Location: Lab

Subject: Washing the boxwood

I followed Cennini’s recipe and washed one of the boxwood pieces, the one with the varnish/coating. I put it on newsprint to let it dry. I didn’t even put it in the fume hood because it seemed like it would dry really quickly.

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2:15 pm

I was right, the block was completely dry.

I rubbed cuttlefish bone on the uncoated side of the washed piece. I rubbed also the edges of the block.

The cuttlefish bone disintegrated and became dust. The block was covered with it.

I used my fingers to take the dust off the block. It seems that some particles were left on the block, between the fine grains. Every time I touched the block my fingers became white.

The process is so easy that if I would like I could repeat it again tomorrow before applying the ground. I also decided how to divide the blocks, diagram is in the safety protocol.

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Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.12.07, 2:00 pm

Location: Lab

Subject: Reconstruction Part 1 (preparing support)

I prepared all materials and tools in advance in the fume hood:

For ground 1 (Cennini):

1 bowl with quite a lot saliva (too much).

1 g of bone ash

A small bowl to mix them.

Labeled boxwood, paper and parchment. A few additional pieces of paper for first trials.

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For ground 2 (Alcherius):

Bain marie, a beaker, thermostat.

2g RSG

36g water

2g bone ash

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I started with the saliva recipe because it seemed simple. I poured some saliva to the small bowl, and added 1g of bone ash. I mixed them with a chopstick, and tested it on one piece of paper that was not taped to the plate using my finger to spread it. The paper got wet quickly from the amount of saliva. It seemed very fluid to me, too fluid. I decided to add some more bone ash. I measured 1g in another white bowl. I added gradually bone ash to the mix, approximately half a gram. I mixed it with my finger (covered with the glove). Then I applied it to another piece of paper that was not taped to the plate. It seemed reasonable to me, better then the first attempt, a little thicker, although the paper was still quite wet. I decided to keep this consistency. I applied the ground to the boxwood according to Cennini’s explanation - used my finger to dab it gently all over the surface of the boxwood block. It didn’t feel like the ground is sticking very well on the boxwood. I tried to spread the ground evenly over the whole block by returning to places that looked empty and dabbing on them again. It was much easier to apply it to the parchment and paper, where I could just spread it with one stroke of my finger, without dabbing. The saliva wetted the surface of the parchment and paper and allowed the bone ash to stick. I let it dry for some time and started making the second ground.

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This is after the first application of ground 1 (the second piece of paper at the other end of the plate was not used.

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I heated the hot plate, placed on it the bain marie with a little water in an amount that allowed the beaker to stand stable in the bigger pot. I mixed the water with RSG and stirred with the thermostat, keeping the temperature between 40-60C, until the RSG dissolved in the water.

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I added 2 g bone ash to the mixture and stirred.

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I thought that the texture was too fluid, almost like water. I imagined that the ground would be much thicker, like lotion. I added another 1 g of RSG. After it dissolved it became a little thicker, like cream. After consulting with Tianna, I decided it’s enough.

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I applied the first layer of ground 2 to the boxwood using a brush. I brushed from left to right. It seemed as if I only brushed it with water. Except for one white drop that accumulated at the bottom left corner, the rest of the block seemed as if nothing special was applied to it.

I applied the ground to the parchment and paper - they got wet and the ground seemed more significant on them.

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I let this plate rest and dry for about 10 minutes. Then I applied the ground a second time. This time, the boxwood seemed like it was covered with white particles. (Visible in the picture below).

I brushed the boxwood, parchment and paper to the other direction, from bottom to top.

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While I let the materials dry on plate 2, I returned to plate 1 and applied another layer of ground 1 to the boxwood. The saliva and bone ash mixture was much thicker after waiting in the fume hood for 10-15 minutes. The rest of the mixture did not suffice to cover all supports, I barely managed to apply a second layer to the boxwood and the piece of parchment. I had to mix again saliva and bone ash to have more ground for the paper.

I mixed just a little bit of saliva with approximately 1 g of bone ash. The mixture was a little thicker than the first time I applied it on paper. I used my finger to apply it to the piece of paper and added some more ground to the parchment. When I touched the paper with the dried ground, it started disintegrating a little, taking off some of the bone ash that was already on it. I kept on applying the second layer, but I didn’t feel like this is the right thing to do.

I let it dry. As you can see in the picture below - the ground looks very thick. The boxwood surface seems covered more evenly than with only one layer. The parchment and paper seem a little bit disorganized, with ground spread unevenly. The two pieces of paper which are at the end of the plate in the picture are the two pieces I used for trials at the beginning. Now after they had time to dry and they had only one layer applied on to them, they look much better than the paper on the plate.

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After letting plate 2 dry for 10 minutes, I applied a third layer with the RSG ground (2).

I used the left-to-right direction again.

I let it dry in the fume hood until monday when I will be able to test them with silverpoint.

Since the saliva+bone ash recipe is very easy, I might try it again if needed, this time with much less bone ash, and apply only one layer.

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.12.10, 11:30 am

Location: Lab

Subject: Reconstruction part 2 (writing and erasing)

When I arrived at the lab Tianna asked me why did I apply a ground on the polished/coated side of the boxwood. Indeed the boxwood surface with ground 2 looked very shiny, but I showed her that the polished/coated side was in fact the back side of the other block with ground 1. What happened in the process is that ground 1 completely disintegrated and fell from the block. What was left was a thin layer of what seemed like bone ash, white, and which looked much more comfortable to work with than the thick layer of ground that was there before.

I also picked the piece of paper from the first trials with ground 1, because it had the thinnest layer, which seemed the most suitable.

The flaky ground falling apart:

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Supports with ground 2 before I started writing:

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On the left - pure silver chunk. On the right - sterling silver (92%).

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General observations from writing:

The sterling silver was more similar to a stylus, having a sharp point at one edge, and a little wider point in the other end. Using the pointy edge left mainly fine lines that seemed like scratches. The wider edge was easier to use. The pure silver was a round chunk of silver. Using neither of the metals felt like drawing with a pencil. I found that I need to use a lot of pressure to draw lines with both the sterling silver piece and the pure silver piece.

First trial pictures:

Boxwood ground 1

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Parchment ground 1

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Paper ground 1

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Boxwood with ground 2 (I wrote the word silver)

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Parchment with ground 2:

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Paper with ground 2:

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Parchment without ground - smooth side up

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Paper without ground:

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Surfaces after erased:

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Boxwood - erased ground 1

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Boxwood - erased ground 2 (not so well)

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Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.12.12, 1:00 pm

Location: Lab

Subject: Iterations

Things to think about and examine:

Is it possible to write and erase again on the paper and parchment pieces that I already used, or will it destruct them? How different is the paper from parchment in that aspect?

Try again boxwood. Which technique would be the most comfortable one for carrying a portable tablet, for writing outside easily? What would suit more the artistic technique? What could be good for practicing as apprentices?

Look at Cennini again and his description of the apprenticeship process.

Results:

Second iteration of writing on supports:

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Boxwood with ground 1 - only remains of the ground are still here. Writes well.

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Boxwood with ground 2 - still have remains from the first round of writing, visible in the background

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General thoughts / conclusions:

• I could erase from the parchment by rubbing my finger. Worked the best with no ground. Managed to smudge a little also from the paper, not really to erase. Managed to erase some from the boxwood with no ground / Cennini’s ground. Erasing with the finger could work, but is not very comfortable, demands some force, and makes the hands dirty.

• The easiest support to write and draw on was the parchment with Cennini’s ground of bone ash and saliva.

• Paper would not be a good erasable support because it loses its fibers when erased many times.

• After erasing twice, most of the ground is removed. It seems that the easiest ground to apply would be the salive + bone ash. - try it again.

• It is not comfortable to write in Arabic on most of these combinations. Could explain why it wouldn’t be used in Islamic societies.

• It might be that I didn’t prepare the RSG ground well. It could be a good idea to try it again if I have time. Use less RSG and apply only one or two layers. Also try to mix some water with the bone ash before inserting it to the water+RSG mix.

• Try to wash the boxwood and see if some of the marks are scratches, or removed completely.

Second iteration of erasing:

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Another trial

1. I washed both pieces of boxwood until they were clean.

2. I took two new pieces of parchment and taped them to a plate - one with the fuzzy side up, one with the smooth side up.

3. I rubbed cuttlefish bone on the boxwood block that was not rubbed with cuttlefish bone at the first time.

4. I used a little bit of saliva, mixed it with less than 1 g of bone ash (I weighed 1 g but did not use it all). I mixed the saliva with the bone ash in a small white plate, but did not mix the whole amount, just a little bit, and applied on the boxwood with my finger (with gloves). I added saliva when it was needed, and mixed it with a little more bone ash, always at the side of the bowl. I left an area with no ground on both blocks, just like the first time.

5. I applied the mixture to the parchment pieces. I applied a thin layer, rubbed it with my finger, and added some more ground in the places that were empty to make if uniform.

6. I covered the empty spaces that were left on the boxwood until it was as uniform as it could get, or so I thought.

7. It dried very quickly! After less than a minute I could touch both the parchment and the boxwood and the ground seemed very stable.

8. I took the same pieces of sterling silver and pure silver. I drew lines, and wrote some words, according to the same division of the first time.

9. I managed to draw easily on both boxwood and parchment. I felt that the silver is just removing the ground, but when I looked closer it seemed like the lines were in silver color.

10. The boxwood without ground - there was a huge difference between the block with cuttlefish bone, and without! This was exactly the opposite block from the last time. Meaning - without any ground, it is much harder to write on boxwood (although possible). Cuttlefish bone is enough to make it much easier! Hence, one could use cuttlefish bone as both ground and erasing method.

11. When I erased with cuttlefish bone and bread, they both removed the bone ash ground from the support. The layer of ground was so thin and flaky that it was removed very easily. Consequently, all the silver drawings/writings were erased as well.

Support before writing - with ground 1, on boxwood and parchment. Left boxwood block was rubbed with cuttlefish bone before.

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After writing

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Zoom - boxwood

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Zoom - parchment

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Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.12.13, 3:00 pm

Location: Library

Subject: more manuscript context

Name: Sahar Bostock

Date and Time:

2018.12.15, 11:00 am

Location: Home

Subject: leftovers from writing

“Some are made from boxwood inlaid with ebony, sandalwood, ivory, or gold and silver like damascening. Then one writes on it with silverpoint, and next erases it with a cuttlefish bone by rubbing them.”¹

• If the coating wears off - you can make a new one at the parchment maker’s, 408