Byzantine manuscript

Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy applied to Byzantine manuscripts in the Special Collections Department of the University of Chicago Library revealed the use of numerous additives to the paint mixture including kaolin, hide glue, egg yolk, and other proteinaceous materials. Some evidence suggests that cochineal was used as a red pigment. 

This chapter is a progress report on the analysis of particles taken from Byzantine illuminated manuscripts from the University of Chicago Library Special Collections. Because Byzantine manuscripts have, heretofore, never been analyzed chemically (9), this report is the result of initial inquiry into a large and complex subject. 

Marava-Chatzinicolaou, A. Toufexi-Paschou, C. Catalogue of the Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts of the National Library of Greece Publications Bureau of the Academy of Athens Athens, 1978 Vol. Z, pp 224-243. 

TRINE Ast. Sigii for the astrological aspect of 120 degrees, derived from the earliest Graeco-Byzantine manuscript tradition (see TRIGONUH), given for example in KALRNPAR 15C / ... 

The pigments used in these manuscripts were produced from mineral and plant sources and applied to prepared sheets of parchment or vellum using a binder such as egg yolk mixed with other substances such as wax or even urine. There is a body of literature on pigment analysis of Armenian and Byzantine manuscripts [39-42] that indicates that the Armenian palette relied heavily on mineral pigments, whereas the Byzantine palette was found to consist primarily of organic pigments. Other important observations were ... 

The yellow pigment, orpiment (arsenic(III) sulfide), was used extensively in Armenian manuscripts but was absent from the vast majority of Byzantine manuscripts. 

One project dealing with medieval manuscripts has had as its objective the application of small-particle-analysis techniques to the study of pigments in medieval Armenian and Byzantine manuscripts. At the University of Chicago, 10 decorated manuscripts were sampled (Table 10). These manuscripts represent a broad chronological span ranging from the tenth century to the post-Byzantine era (sixteenth century or later). 

Fig. 6.2. The Cannabis plant, from a Byzantine manuscript of Dioscorides Materia Medica (I century A.D.). Dioscorides was not aware of the psychotropic effects of Cannabis, but later medical writers, such as Oribasius (IV century A. D.), described them quite accurately.

The thirteenth century is distinguished by a remarkable development of culture in Europe.1 The crusades covering a period from the end of the eleventh century to the middle of the thirteenth, exerted a great influence to that end. They brought western civilization into contact with Arabian culture, and opened to western scholars freer access to Constantinople and its treasures in manuscripts of Grecian classical literature as well as to later Byzantine developments. The crusades therefore functioned in that respect as a great international world fair. As we have seen the twelfth century was especially notable in the history of chemistry for the introduction of Arabian texts to European scholars and for the circulation of many such works in Latin translations. 

The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1454 and the breaking up of the Byzantine Empire resulted in the scattering of the Greek scientists and made more available to Europe their accumulated manuscripts and scientific knowledge. 

TAURUS Ast. Zodiacal sign of the Buii. The printed version of the sigil is derived frc a the late-atediaeval manuscript tradition which links with one of the forms used in the Graeco-Byzantine - see as example, HYGIMUS 1482 ... 

Although the earUest surviving manuscripts from the Roman and Byzantine empires date to around the fifth cenmry CE, the vast majority are from the tenth century onward until manuscript production died out with the invention of the printing press. For the most part, illuminated manuscripts, that is, those that contained painted illustrations, were of a religious nature and the product of monasteries. It was actually the continuous production of these manuscripts that preserved the language, culture and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. 

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