[Scriptoris] Old English recipe for ink from UK Nat'l Archives

[Hillary Greenslade]

Old English recipe for ink: 
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/museum/item.asp?item_id=8

Text: 
Old English recipe for ink
This recipe for ink is written in old English. It is a fragment from a larger book or volume, and
has long since been parted from the original source. It was found in the records of the Chancery,
a government department that wrote most official documents issued on behalf of the Crown during
the medieval period.

The written word has been an essential means of communication for many centuries. The Romans used
an ink made of soot mixed with water. The Egyptians made ink by mixing water, plant fluids and
lampblack. These inks were simple to produce and use, but they faded over time. 

In medieval times, scribes started to use iron gall ink, which soaked into the parchment and so
did not fade in the same way. There were a number of ways of producing this type of ink, but they
all involved mixing tannic acids with ferrous sulphate and gum. The recipe here suggests the
following ingredients: gall (growths on oak trees caused by insects or fungus), copperas or
vitriol (copper or other type of ferrous sulphate) and gum. Gall ink was so successful that it
continued to be used until Victorian times.