check on amidin in vocabulary, middle fr dictionary, Cotgrave, also can search in Gallica


alun de plume, roche alun, etc. WHAT IS ALUM?? good question.

TEXTILE PROCESSES: HISTORY AND TECHIQUES

look for other REFERENCES TO OIL ON CLOTH--DURABILITY IN OUTDOOR WEATHER??

CONSIDER UNIV AMSTERDAM RECIPES.

1. Recipes

1) Annotation 1

- Oil Painting on Taffeta without the oil running

<page>010v</page>
<image>http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10500001g/f26.image</image>
<div>
<id>p010v_1</id>
<head>For painting in <m>oil</m> on <m>taffeta</m> without the <m>oil</m> running</head>

<ab>You have to make a layer of <m>batture</m>, made of “<m>colle forte</m>” soaked for 24 hours in <m>water</m> then gently boiled so it is not too strong. After, stir in a little <m>honey</m>to soften it and bring it all to a boil. And on top of this layer which will soon be dry, you will be able to paint in <m>oil</m>, which will soften the layer even more, and which will also serve for a layer of <m>gold</m>. <m>Alum water</m>also keeps <m>oil</m> from running.</ab>
</div>

2) Recipes Related to “colle forte”

- Colle

<title id=p085r_a2”>Glue</title>
<ab id=p085r_b2”>The Flemish mend their earthenware pots with or colés, that is to say massicot, minium and varnish. </ab>

- colle de poisson

<title id=“p159r_a3”>
Fish glue</title>
<ab id=“p159r_b3”>
Beat it very finely and thinly on a well-cleaned anvil, then dilute your glue with spirits, put the mixture on hot ashes, and on a low fire, it will melt very soon. If the glue is not strong and thick enough, add spirits in greater quantity. Do not melt it in a fatty pot, but in a new pot if possible. It melts on fire and dries very quickly on fire. When your glue sets on the work, heat it away from fire, it will stick very strongly. One reworks flowers and delicate things made from silver, gold, tin and other metal with this glue which will not spoil your work.</ab>

- colle de poison ou usblac et colle de bouche

<title id=”p007r_a4”>Fish glue or usblac and mouth glue</title>
<title id=”p007r_b4a”>It is made from codfish skin that has been boiled rather than salted. Joiners use it on their masterpieces and guitar makers use it for their more delicate works. It needs to be strongly whipped, then soaked gently in barely boiling water.</ab>

<title id=”p007r_b4b”>Mouth glue is made of parchment scraps and used to glue paper or similar things without fire, by wetting it with one’s mouth.</ab>
<note id=”p007r_c4”>It is whipped and left to soak in white wine for one night, then melted over a low heat. Others soak it in spirits.</note>

- mentions strong glue

<div>
<id>p029r_1</id>
<head><m>Stucco</m> for molding</head>

<ab>Take <m>tragacanth gum</m> and put it to soak until, having absorbed its <m>water</m>, it is swollen and becomes like jelly. Then crush it quite forcefully on the <m>marble</m> and then take rye flour, which is better than <m>wheat [flour]</m> because it is more humid and does not make the paste as brittle, and dust your <m>tragacanth gum</m> with it and thus continue to pound and mix in the very finely sieved flour, little by little. And knead as if you wanted to make <m>bread</m>, until you perceive that it has enough body and is as firm as bread dough that is ready for the oven. This is perceptible when it can stretch enough without breaking. And if it is not strong enough, it will not come off [the surface] properly. It being thus prepared, rub the hollow [part of the mold] with <m>oil</m> with a brush, so that the <m>oil</m> penetrates everywhere to make it come off better, and press the paste inside quite forcefully. And if it does not come off well, mix in more <m>flour</m> until it has enough body. With this you will mold very neatly such work, either masks or garlands, as you like, and they will be dry within one day. Afterwards, you apply them with <m>strong glue</m> or <m>paste glue</m>, as you like, and you will be able to paint and furnish them with <m>gold</m> and all colors. In <pl>Rome</pl> they make floor ornaments with it. You can make bed ornaments with it. <head>If you want that the work remains white</head>, it is better to mold with <m>plaster</m> instead of <m>flour</m>. It is true that it is also more brittle and firm, but it must be prepared like this: mix it while it is a powder in a good amount of <m>water</m> so that it is light-colored and pound it several times a day for fifteen days. Then pour water by inclination, collect the <m>plaster</m> and crush it fine on the <m>marble</m>, and put it in a clean lead vessel, so that no dust or dirt falls into it, and leave it in the open and in a fair place for fifteen days with its <m>water</m>, and it will become matte, strong, white and light, very suitable to become the groundlayer for burnished gold. And you can mix some of this powder instead of <m>flour</m> with <m>tragacanth gum</m>, and your work will be beautiful. Instead of plastre you can mix in well ground <m>chalk</> or <m>lead white</m>, and try <m>bole <sup>armeni</sup></m> and similar things. This <m>stucco</m> with the <m>tragacanth gum</m> has the peculiarity that it is pliable before it is dry, it fits on either round or flat things, as you like. It is to make an ornament at little expense.
</ab>

<note>
<margin>left-middle</margin>
The <m>flour</m> is not good in this, but <m>chalk</m> or <m>lead white</m> [is].
</note>
</div>

3) Annotation 2

- How to oil paint on taffeta

<title id=“p042v_a3”>Paindre à huile sur taffetas</title>
<ab id=“p042v_b3”>Affin que l’huile ne coure poinct, fais ta couche premiere<lb/>
avecq miel, eau d’alum & eau d’amydon.</ab>

<title id=“p042v_a3”>Oil painting on taffeta</title>

<ab id=“p042v_b3”>In order that the oil not run, make your first layer with honey, water of alum, and[1] essence of amidin.</ab>

4) Recipes Related to Alum

- Water and alum

<div>
<id>p073r_4</id>
<head>For making gray <m>wood</m></head>

<ab>Take <m>alum</m> with <m>river water</m>and boil them together. Then take <m>river water</m> with some <m>bran</m>, pour in the <m>bran</m> and crush them together. Take <m>iron filings</m> and <m>sulfur</m> and <m>verdigris</m> and <m>fuller's earth</m> <figure/>, and boil it all together, and crush <m>maplewood</m> which will have been soaked in <m>water</m> of <m>alum</m> and <m>rainwater</m>, and put it to boil together. All of this can be done better in a large crucible.</ab>
</div>

- This recipe is for stone alum and I don't know if stone alum is different from regular alum, but it's too informative to ignore!

<ab id=”p107r_b2f”>Good stone alum is white and as shiny as white silk, this stone alum is made of long pieces, as long as a finger, and is very fragile and woolly and fluffy. Stone alum made of stone is harder and not so good. The best quality can be found in France near Ronan. For our sand, stone alum must be crushed into a mortar, and must be ground on the marble again. Don’t even think about sieving it because this matter is fat and woolly, it wouldn’t pass through any sieve because of the very fine and soft filaments. These filaments give the sand a much greater binding effect than natural wool or even the filler the foundry owner uses for big works, because natural wool and filler burn and stone feather alum resists fire.</ab>

- Has a bit more alum info

<div>
<id>p040r_2</id>
<head><m>Aqua fortis</m></head>
<ab>For four pounds of <m>aqua fortis</m> matter that is in the retort, some use four ounces of common <m>water</m> in the container, which is better than putting it into the retort. The <m>alum</m> is dried out and calcined so that the <m>water</m> doesn’t have as many impurities. Many do it without drying out the <m>alum</m>.</ab>
</div>

- Non BNF

Alumen, and the Several Varieties of it; Thirty-eight Remedies., Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, book 35, chapter 52; on the Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University. Last accessed 24 October 2015.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=35:chapter=52

5) Recipes related to fabrics

- Ponis for smoothing satin

<title id=“p042v_a1”>Pounce for scratching satin</title>
<ab id=“p042v_b1”>After pouncing with crushed flour or chalk, in order that the dots of the pounce not be erased, go over the trace with egg white beaten with the milk or bark of a fig tree, which will immediately make the egg white clear up like water, without becoming opaque, it will maintain the trace that you will go over again and scratch with a piece of glass or penknife.</ab>

- Cloth folds

<id>p059v_3</id> <head>Clothes’ folds</head>

<ab>You have to pay attention to not represent some fake ones, and so copy the ones naturally made. A rough fabric does not have any folds, <m>taffetas</m> and <m>silk</m> fabrics do have some more and <m>black veil</m> has even more. Make sure that their way is either horizontal or vertical.</ab></div>

- Color the Damask Cloth

<title id=“p015r_a1”>Damask Cloth</title>
<ab id=“p015r_b1”>You can make damask cloth of two different colours and imitate embroidery without adding anything else to it, as follows. Once it is is dyed yellow, pounce onto it such a pattern as will please you. Then you will sew some string or a bigger cord loosely onto the pattern and throw it into a dye of woad or pastel and it will become green, except that which is beneath the string, which will remain yellow because the green dye will not have penetrated there. And you can do the same with other colours and, instead of string or cord, add some pieces of poor quality cloth cut in Moorish shapes on top of the first colour. In that manner, you will have cheap embroidery.</ab>

2. Materials to ponder

1) Taffeta

- Reference

- History of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances [electronic resource] : including observations on spinning, dyeing and weaving. Also an account of the pastoral life of the ancients, their social state and attainments in the domestic arts, with appendices on Pl

- A glossary of silk terms, including a short history of silk; its origin, culture and manufacture

- Miscellanea Curiositae Michelangelae: A Steep Tariff, a Half Dozen Horses, and Yards of Taffeta

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taffeta

- Dictionary of Textiles: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011277806;view=1up;seq=162

- Fairchild's dictionary of textiles [electronic resource]

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89043757574;view=1up;seq=550

- The dictionary of needlework [electronic resource] : an encyclopaedia of artistic, plain, and fancy needlework, dealing fully with the details of all the stitches employed, the method of working, the materials used, the meaning of technical terms, and, where necessary, tracing the origin and history of the various works described. Illustrated with upwards of 1200 wood engravings, and coloured plates. Plain sewing, textiles, dressmaking, appliances, and terms

- 101 fabrics: [electronic resource] analyses and textile dictionary
- Oxford art online [electronic resource]


2) colle forte


3) Honey

- The one we now buy from supermarket may be different from the one in 16th century?


4) Alum water


5) Amidin

For the definition of amidin (amydon), viz.
http://portail.atilf.fr/cgibin/getobject_?a.3:161./var/artfla/encyclopedie/textdata/image/ Qu'est - ce donc que l'amydon? c'est un sédiment de blé gâté, ou de griots & recoupettes de bon blé, dont on fait une espece de pâte blanche & friable, & qu'on prépare en suivant le procédé que nous venons d'expliquer.

3. Protocol

We plan to try two different ways of preventing oil running on taffetas. One is explained in p010v as a layer called “batture”. The other one is referred both in this page and in p042v as a simple indication that “alum water also keeps oil from running”. Water of alum appears in other recipes which offer more information and clues.

However, neither of our principle recipes refer to the way of applying layers. For example, how many layers do we need to prevent oil running perfectly? So we need more trials on it.

4. Questions aimed to answer

1) What is taffeta?
- A kind of silk?
- Is it original in west Europe? If not, where does it come from?
2) What is taffeta used for?
- Cloths? Covers? Flags?
- Is it common? If yes, when does it get popular?
- Is it original in Europe? If not, where does it come from?
3) Why do people need oil paintings on taffetas?
- Before oil painting, how do people paint on taffetas? Or when do they start doing so?
4) What is alum?
5) What is oil running?
- What will happen if we don’t apply the layer?
- Is the method mentioned in BnF a practical and common one at that time?

[1] The translation in the Google Drive writes “or” here. But we check the French text and we find that originally it is a mark of “&”. Then we search for other recipes including this mark, all of which are translated as “and”. Thus we decide to correct the “or” to “and”.

MATERIAL LIST

For 10v
For 42v


From Naomi:
Wheat Starch Paste:
http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/sg/bpg/annual/v26/bp26-28.pdf
(Coincidentally written by a Photographs Conservator from the Met whom I met last week!)