Same but different – XRF study of inks from 13-14th centuries Torah scroll

Ms Erfurt 7 (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Ms. Or. fol. 1216) is a thirteenth century Torah scroll from the famous Erfurt collection kept at the Berlin State Library. Multiple corrections, reinking, and three replacement sheets testify to intense ritual use of the scroll. The scroll was investigated in order to compare the ink used in the original and replacement sheets, both for the main text and for corrections. Finally, we answered the scholarly question of whether there was a special practice of writing God’s name. The first survey was performed on-site with a portable XRF spectrometer on a selection of spots, and later it was complemented with XRF scans of several paragraphs of interest with an imaging spectrometer, after permission was granted to bring the scroll to the laboratory. In the presentation, we will show how material analysis of inks can contribute to scholarly research on manuscript and compare what can be achieved on-site with spot analysis, and what questions can be addressed only with use of a scanning device.

The research for this project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2176 'Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures', project no. 390893796. The research was conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg in collaboration with the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM).