Multispectral Imaging Data of ink and paper coating mock-ups, prepared according to Arabic recipes dating between the 9th and the 20th centuries CE. The data were acquired in 2017 as part of the PhD thesis of Claudia Colini.

The mock-ups consist of 30 formulations of black inks, of which 17 iron gall inks (nrs: 52, 63, 64, 73, 99, 106, 12, 112, 115, 127, 134, 138, 143, 147, 148, 154, 217), 7 carbon inks (nrs: 6, 17, 35, 39, 44, 46, 50), 5 mixed inks (nrs: 165, 168, 173, 182, 193) and 1 squid ink (nr. 218). The inks were applied to paper coated with 4 different recipes (nrs: 1, 2, 3, 5). Each ink was applied twice, creating two mock-ups: one was used as a reference, the other was aged. The ageing was done by Michael Bücker at the BAM with the ageing chamber WK11-180/40 (Weiss Umwelttechnik GmbH), with the conditions of T=80°C and RH=65% for 49 days, with a pre- and post-conditioning of 24 hours at T=20°C and RH=50%.

The mocks-ups of a single ink formulation can be found on each set of images: the reference samples on the 4 papers with different coatings are on the left, while the aged ones are on the right. A control sample of ink applied on whatman paper was also included in the picture.

The set of images called "Paper_Samples" shows the writing supports with different coatings but without the application of inks. From top to bottom: nr 2, 1, 5, 0 (no coating), 3.

The research for project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) within the Sonderforschungsbereich 950 (SFB 950). The research was conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg in collaboration with DAAD and the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM).

{"references": ["https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004444805_009", "Thesis: From Recipes to Material Analysis: the Arabic tradition of Black Inks and Paper Coatings (9th to 20th century)"]}