{"id":20452,"date":"2019-01-22T19:41:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T19:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=20452"},"modified":"2019-04-29T17:13:31","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T16:13:31","slug":"the-chemistry-of-the-book-of-kells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=20452","title":{"rendered":"The Chemistry of the Book of Kells"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"kcite-section\" kcite-section-id=\"20452\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Book_of_Kells\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Book of Kells<\/a> is a spectacularly illuminated gospel manuscript dating from around 800AD and held in Trinity College library in Dublin. Some idea of the colours achieved can be seen below.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-20452 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?attachment_id=20454'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsDecoratedInitial-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsDecoratedInitial-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsDecoratedInitial-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?attachment_id=20455'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsFol027v4Evang-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsFol027v4Evang-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsFol027v4Evang-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?attachment_id=20456'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>I thought it would be of interest to list how these colours were achieved.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Black ink was made from oak-galls mixed with iron sulfate and acetic acid from wine or vinegar. Carbon-black ink was used less frequently<\/li>\n<li>Greens made by mixing arsenic sulfide and indigo (extracted from the Woad plant) or using verdigris, which is a copper carbonate or chloride.<\/li>\n<li>Red dots were made from red lead, or\u00a0Pb<sub>3<\/sub>O<sub>4<\/sub>.<\/li>\n<li>Blue used indigo, not lapis lazuli.<\/li>\n<li>White was gypsum or calcium sulfate.<\/li>\n<li>Yellow was arsenic sulfide, known as auripigmentum since it had a lustrous golden quality.<\/li>\n<li>Purple came from a lichen (Roccella tinctoria) which is better known to chemists as a source of litmus; the basic chromophore of which is\u00a07-hydroxyphenoxazone.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you ever visit Dublin, do go and see the manuscript for yourself.<\/p>\n<!-- kcite active, but no citations found -->\n<\/div> <!-- kcite-section 20452 -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Book of Kells is a spectacularly illuminated gospel manuscript dating from around 800AD and held in Trinity College library in Dublin. Some idea of the colours achieved can be seen below.\u00a0 I thought it would be of interest to list how these colours were achieved. Black ink was made from oak-galls mixed with iron [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":5,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[2566,2610,2567,2565,2575,2568,804,2574,2573,2570,2564,2576,2571,2572,2563,2569,2577],"ppma_author":[2661],"class_list":["post-20452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting-chemistry","tag-biblical-manuscripts","tag-book-design","tag-book-of-kells","tag-books","tag-city-dublin","tag-county-meath","tag-dublin","tag-hospitality-recreation","tag-illuminated-manuscript","tag-kells","tag-manuscripts","tag-trinity-college","tag-trinity-college-dublin","tag-trinity-college-library","tag-trinity-college-library-dublin","tag-western-art","tag-woad-plant"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Chemistry of the Book of Kells - Henry Rzepa&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=20452\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Chemistry of the Book of Kells - Henry Rzepa&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Book of Kells is a spectacularly illuminated gospel manuscript dating from around 800AD and held in Trinity College library in Dublin. 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The Bayeaux tapestry is a later embroidery dating probably from around 1077 and here the colours are based entirely on mordanted\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6341,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=6341","url_meta":{"origin":20452,"position":1},"title":"The blog post as a scientific article: citation management","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"February 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes, as a break from describing chemistry, I take to describing the (chemical\/scientific) creations behind the (WordPress) blog system. It is fascinating how there do seem increasing signs of convergence between the blog post and the journal article. 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I ended by asserting that it is a very exciting time to be an aspiring book author, with one's hands on (what matters), the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chemical IT&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chemical IT","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14692,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=14692","url_meta":{"origin":20452,"position":3},"title":"Impressions of China 2: The colour of porcelain.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"October 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In Jingdezhen an Imperial Kiln was built in 1369 to produce porcelain that was \"white as jade, thin as paper, bright as a mirror and tuneful as a bell\". It's the colours of the glazes that caught my eye, achieved by a combination of oxidative and reductive firing in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Historical&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Historical","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=565"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11493,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=11493","url_meta":{"origin":20452,"position":4},"title":"The world ash tree of the computer hardware industry&#8230; crystalline silicon from 1854.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"October 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The element silicon best represents the digital era of the mid 20th century to the present; without its crystalline form, there would be no computers (or this blog). 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