Biblioteca Capitolare – Verona

The investigations were carried out on the Evangelia VI (30), a purple codex dated back to the 5-6th century AD, and on the Sacramentarium Sancti Wolfkangi LXXXVII (82), a 10th century AD codex with purple pages.

The Evangelia VI (30), 5-6th century AD,and the Sacramentarium Sancti Wolfkangi LXXXVII (82), 10th century AD.

Multiband imaging, FORS and XRF, together with portable optical microscopy, were used to characterize the materials (i.e. support, pigments, dyes and inks) and to document the conservation state of both the manuscripts.

The Evangelia was characterized by a poor conservation of the parchment that resulted in large losses where integrations were applied during previous conservation works.

The Evangelia VI (30) at the Biblioteca Capitolare of Verona. (top) Conservation status. (bottom) Microphotographs of a white deposit and a paper integration applied to the parchment support.

The analysis of the support confirmed the use of parchment, except for integration areas where paper was identified. FORS also allowed identifying orchil, the alkaline extract from lichens such as Roccella tinctoria, as the responsible of the purple color of the parchment.

FORS also provided some preliminary indications about the nature of the inks. A gold ink was identified in the original text, while a Cu/Sn alloy was likely used for some marginal notes. Future XRF analysis carried out in collaboration with Dr. Angelo Agostino (UNITO) will provide a more in-depth characterization of the chemical composition of the two inks.

Examples of the use of portable optical microscopy and FORS for the investigation on the Evangelia VI (30).

Codex LXXXVII was characterized by elaborated decorations where the use of a more heterogenous selection of materials was observed.

Similarly to the Evangelia, orchil was used for the typical color of the purple pages where elaborated frames and initials were also present. A mixture of a blue (lapislazuli) pigment and a red dye was likely used to impart a dark purple color to the background of the silver text at page 233.

The use of gold and silver inks was also identified thanks to FORS investigations. Gold leaf was also used for the decoration of the initials and/or the external frame of the purple pages.

Lapislazuli, alone or mixed with white lead, was identified in the blue areas, while minium was used for the orange details. The characterization of the green areas via FORS resulted more complex and further investigations are nowadays in progress to identify the nature of the pigments or dyes used by the miniaturist.