World Map
World map (Orbis terrae compendiosa descriptio), engraved and hand-colored in 1587 after his father's map of 1569.
Rumold Mercator
Semperviva
Semperviva, full name <i>Sempervivum tectorum</i>, is the Latin name for plants known as houseleeks, liveforevers, and sengreen, among many other names. It is a succulent and has rosette leaves with fine hairs and pink flowers. It is well-known in folk medicine.
Semperviva is native to southern Europe. Since ancient Rome, there have been superstitions about the plant’s ability to protect houses from lightning strikes. The plant’s magical properties also extend to medicinal remedies. For example, English manuscripts of the fourteenth century record it as a cure for burning hands, paralleling its believed defense against lightning. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, semperviva was seen as a good luck plant for the house.
In Ms. Fr. 640:
<blockquote>Fol. 55r - "Against wounds"<br />
Cut a chicken or a dog to test & in the wound put sap & pestled herb which is called semperviva, that is the small one which has leaves like small grains, which some call vermicularis. And one holds for certain that it will not die.</blockquote>
<p>Donald Watts, “Houseleek,” in <i>Dictionary of Plant Lore</i> (Amsterdam: Elsevier/AP, 2007), pp. 202-3, <a href="https://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebscohost.com%2Flogin.aspx%3Fdirect%3Dtrue%26AuthType%3Dip%26db%3De025xna%26AN%3D199215%26site%3Dehost-live%26scope%3Dsite%26ebv%3DEB%26ppid%3Dpp_202">https://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?qurl=https%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26AuthType%3dip%26db%3de025xna%26AN%3d199215%26site%3dehost-live%26scope%3dsite%26ebv%3DEB%26ppid%3Dpp_202</a>.</p>
<p>"Housesleek", <i>Australian Oxford Dictionary</i> (2 ed.), Oxford University Press (2004),
<a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195517965.001.0001/m-en_au-msdict-00001-0025644?rskey=Vu0fsp&result=5">https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195517965.001.0001/m-en_au-msdict-00001-0025644?rskey=Vu0fsp&result=5</a>.</p>
<p>"Housesleek", <i>Oxford Dictionary of English</i> (3 ed.), Oxford University Press (2015),
<a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199571123.001.0001/m_en_gb0389240?rskey=Vu0fsp&result=9">https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199571123.001.0001/m_en_gb0389240?rskey=Vu0fsp&result=9</a>.</p>
<p>Image: Hans Simon Holtzbecker, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Tidligere tilskrevet, "<i>Sempervivum tectorum (almindelig husløg); Sempervivum montanum (bjerg-husløg),</i>" 1649-1659, Artstor, <a href="https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/28354365">https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/28354365</a>.</p>
<p><i>Elia Zhang, Columbia University</i></p>
Sandalwood
Sandalwood is a small- to medium-sized tree of the genus <i>Santabalum</i> which usually obtains nutrients through photosynthesis as well as by becoming partially parasitic to the roots of other trees. Two common forms are Indian sandalwood, <i>Santalum album</i>, and Australian sandalwood, <i>Santalum spicatum</i>. Sandalwood’s aromatic wood and roots - as well as its essential oil - are commonly used as incense for religious and medicinal purposes. Its wood is also used decoratively. The tree’s fruit is edible and does not contain the same strong fragrance as its wood.
Sandalwood trees are native to East Indonesia, the Pacific Islands, and North Australia. Its distribution also extends to Chile, Hawaiian Archipelago, and New Zealand. Since ancient times, sandalwood oil production was led by India, and its aroma was esteemed by people of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. The ancient Egyptians imported this wood and used it in medicine. It was later known as the East Indian sandalwood in the commercial realm. In the sixteenth century, sandalwood played an important role in the expeditions of Krishnadevaraya, the ruler of Vijayanagara Dynasty, and was brought to the Deccan plateau. Around 1792, the sandalwood trade was monopolized by Tipu Sultan after he declared the tree to be royal. The monopoly was continued by the later Maharajas of Mysore and the Karnataka Government until recently. The sandalwood trade has resulted in severe exploitation and the tree has entered the vulnerable category of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List.
In Ms. Fr. 640:
<blockquote>Fol. 15v - "Tablets"<br />
Some are made from boxwood inlaid with ebony, sandalwood, ivory, or gold and silver like damascening. Then one writes on it with silverpoint, and next erases it with a cuttlefish bone by rubbing them.</blockquote>
<p>Alan Davidson and Tom Jaine, eds., “Sandalwood,” <i>Oxford Reference</i> (Oxford University Press, 2014), <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806819.001.0001/acref-9780192806819-e-2129?rskey=j1yQNk&result=2">https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806819.001.0001/acref-9780192806819-e-2129?rskey=j1yQNk&result=2</a>.</p>
<p>A. N. Arun Kumar, Greta Joshi, and H. Y. Mohan Ram, “Sandalwood: History, Uses, Present Status and the Future,” <i>Current Science</i> (Current Science Association, December 25, 2012), <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24089347">https://www.jstor.org/stable/24089347</a>.</p>
<p>“Sandalwood” <i>World Encyclopedia</i>, (Philip's, 2014), <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199546091.001.0001/acref-9780199546091-e-10230?rskey=WB8QDj&result=3">https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199546091.001.0001/acref-9780199546091-e-10230?rskey=WB8QDj&result=3</a>.</p>
<p>Sahar Bostock, “Tablets,” in <i>Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition and English Translation of BnF Ms. Fr. 640</i>, ed. Making and Knowing Project, Pamela H. Smith, Naomi Rosenkranz, Tianna Helena Uchacz, Tillmann Taape, Clément Godbarge, Sophie Pitman, Jenny Boulboullé, Joel Klein, Donna Bilak, Marc Smith, and Terry Catapano (New York: Making and Knowing Project, 2020), <a href="https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_068_fa_18">https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_068_fa_18</a>. DOI: <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.7916/8ev4-pf02">https://www.doi.org/10.7916/8ev4-pf02</a>.</p>
<p>Image: Francis Sinclair (after I. Sinclair), “Sandalwood (<i>Santalum album</i>): flowering and fruiting stem,” c. 1887. Chromolithograph. Wellcome Collection, Wellcome Library no. 25343i. <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/y3fwava7">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/y3fwava7</a>.</p>
<p><i>Elia Zhang, Columbia University</i></p>
Mastic
Mastic is a soft resin from the mastic tree, <i>Pistacia lentiscus</i>. The mastic tree is a bushy evergreen which exudes mastic from its bark. The tree has aromatic leaves and fruit. The resin is used as a gum and adhesive and as an ingredient in varnishes. It is also used medicinally, in making chewing gum, and as a flavoring. Mastic has a balsamic odor and an astringent taste.
The mastic tree is native to the shores of the Mediterranean. Specifically, mastic resin is known to be produced from Chios, an island in the Aegean Archipelago. Throughout history, the resin was highly prized. In 1346, the city of Chios was conquered by the Genoans who later established the stock company of Maona. The Genoan government introduced a new system for the international trade of mastic, splitting the distribution of each year’s harvest equally between four regions: 1) the Greek territory, 2) the West (Italy, France, Spain and Germany), 3) Asia Minor, and 4) north and west African (Syria, Egypt and Barbary). In 1566, the Ottomans took over the occupation of Chios from the Genoans and maintained control into the early twentieth century. Under Ottoman rule, Chios continued to be the primary source for mastic trade with Europe.
In Ms. Fr. 640:
<blockquote>Fol. 3r - “Counterfeit coral”<br />
…For counterfeiting your coral, you can mix a quarter part of mastic into your purified resin to render it more firm and more beautiful, & if you were to take a single tear of mastic, it would be all the better, but it would be too long…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 3r - “Thick varnish for planks”<br />
…But it is used to heighten colors which have soaked in and to keep them from dust. Mastic varnish does not resist rain, whereas that of oil and rosin does…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 4r - “Varnish of spike lavender oil”<br />
…You can put in pulverized mastic extracted in tears or otherwise, & it will be more desiccative, in place of sandarac…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 7r - “Doublets”<br />
Good dragon’s blood soaked in eau-de-vie carries its mastic or glue in itself, as do sap green & saffron.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 31r - “Varnish resistant to water”<br />
Flanders varnish, made with turpentine & oil of turpentine or mastic, can come off and does not hold up in the rain…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 39v - “Colors for illumination on glass”<br />
In order that your turpentine colors do not spread, & hold together, mix in a little of tear of mastic together with the turpentine.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 39v - “Tracing some history on glass”<br />
…then you shall fill the background with azur d’esmail or verdigris or fine laque platte tempered with clear turpentine, mixed with a little of tear of mastic if you want that the colors are more even & do not spread…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 40v - “Cross of the commanders of Malta”<br />
…tempered with clear turpentine & tear of mastic & laid down on a silver leaf, not the kind which the painters use, but a thicker kind…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 42r - “Wax for seal and imprint”<br />
…You can carve the figures & gild them, silver them, & paint them with colors in varnish, & transfer them onto a base of glass painted with colors in turpentine & mastic. And if you want to apply these plates by incrustation, do it with gum ammoniac tempered with vinegar, and you will have good glue.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 42v - “White varnish on plaster”<br />
Give two or three coats of quite white glue for painting. Next, varnish with varnish of sandarac, spike lavender oil, and a little mastic. And in the evening put it into a vessel, all pestled well together, without fire, which would turn it yellow. Then with a paintbrush, it is dry immediately. Pour the oil, which will have taken the substance.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 60v - “Varnish dry in an hour”<br />
Take white turpentine oil & turpentine & mastic, pulverized & passed delicately through a sieve, & boil together, stirring continuously with a stick until it is dry. And put in two liards' worth of good eau-de-vie. And if you extract the tear of mastic, it will be whiter & clearer. There is no need to put in turpentine, but only its white turpentine oil & mastic pulverized at your discretion, until it has enough body. Which one knows when, being placed on a knife in the wind, it does not run. This one is excellent for panels and is dry within an hour and does not stick like the turpentine one.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 71v - “Varnish”<br />
To a half lb of spike lavender oil, put in 4 ℥ of sandarac & mastic subtly pulverized…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 74r - “For making varnish”<br />
…And then after, you will take mastic & arabic, two ounces each, which will both be well ground, and you will put everything together, & will make it boil while stirring continuously, for the space of five hours…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 77v - “Another approved varnish”<br />
Take two ounces of linseed oil & two ounces of petrolle oil and two ounces of mastic, the whitest you can find, and of glass alum, & grind it, and take a little bit of white copperas, and put all these drugs together into an earthen pot that should be new, and lay it on hot ashes for a bit, and you will see a beautiful varnish.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 79v - “For making varnish”<br />
Take some mastic, sang darac, gum arabic & spike lavender oil, as much of one as the other, & make them melt all together, & before coating it, lay a coat of glue quite clear, & let it dry.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 97v - “Mastic varnish dry in a half hour”<br />
Some take 2 ℥ of mastic, a half ℥ of turpentine, & a half ℥ of turpentine oil, & eau-de-vie, a little at your discretion because it evaporates when heated & nonetheless makes the varnish more desiccative. But I made it thus: I take turpentine oil at discretion & put in a good bit of turpentine, because it remains always humid & attaches itself if one puts in too much, & eau-de-vie, & heat in a varnished bowl the said oil, & when it begins to be very hot, I put in some subtly ground mastic & passed through a sieve, around one-third of the oil, and let reheat until it is melted, which will be soon on hot ashes. Once all melted, try it on the knife, and if you see that it has too much body, add in a little turpentine oil, and if it does not have enough, add in mastic, and thus it will be done. And keep it well covered so that no filth gets in. When you want to make it, be careful to sort & choose the mastic that is white & purified of any dirt & dust & black dross. And when you wash it & dry it to render it very white & clean, it will be even better. For if you do not purge it well, these straws & marks, pulverized into it, will remain within the varnish, & when you set it on white or flesh color, it will seem that they are fleas & blemishes. Once well chosen, pulverize it in a mortar and pass it through a very fine sieve, and next mix it in oil, as is said. But if you want to make it more carefully, extract a tear of mastic, as you know, pulverize, pass, & mix, and you will have something very singular for small works. Take heed when varnishing not to breathe on it, for this will make the varnish whiten & take body.<br />
[marginal notes]<br />
It almost dries when working.<br />
One knows that this varnish does not have body enough when it does not take well on a panel in oil, for it is like water. Therefore, add in pulverized mastic & heat until it is good. This varnish is very white & beautiful, & does not go to your head like that of spike lavender.<br />
For some, instead of turpentine oil, put spike lavender oil, which is not as good.
This varnish is laid down cold on the panel with a very clean fingertip, & one needs to spread it vigorously.<br />
The Italians scarcely varnish their paintings because they layer their paintings very thick, & they are a long time drying on the inside, though on top they make a dry skin & crust.<br />
One lays the varnish with a finger so as make a lean layer, because when thick, it yellows.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 98r - “Varnish for lutes”<br />
They take a little turpentine, & oil of turpentine or of spike lavender, & amber pulverized & passed very subtly, & make like that of mastic, & add in a little dragon’s blood to color it and make it reddish, and others some terra merita for yellow.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 99v - “Varnish”<br />
Some make the one of mastic with two ounces of mastic and one of clear & white turpentine oil & eau-de-vie as above. Heat it on ashes until it is melted, then let it rest & put it in another vessel to purge it of dregs.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 100r - “Gemstones”<br />
You need to pestle your materials in a mortar of thick glass & encased & stuck with mastic into another mortar of wood, in order that it does not break. This can serve for perfumers. & the pestle, also of glass.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 120v - “Keeping dry flowers in the same state all year”<br />
…Flowers are also kept in their same beauty in distilled vinegar in a well sealed vessel which does not allow any wind, which should be well sealed with wax & mastic. Carnations & roses, the residue of common vinegar makes them rot…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 133r - “Marks from the points of iron wire which are found on the head of the animal”<br />
…& on this end place there a little hard wax or a little mastic or cement and, by means of the hot iron wire, hold in place the throat of the animal…</blockquote>
<p>Angus Stevenson, ed. “Mastic,” <i>Oxford Dictionary of English</i> (3 ed) (Oxford University Press, 2015), <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199571123.001.0001/m_en_gb0504170?rskey=FYNEET&result=12">https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199571123.001.0001/m_en_gb0504170?rskey=FYNEET&result=12</a>.</p>
<p>Dimitrios Ierapetritis, “The Geography of the Chios Mastic Trade from the 17th through to the 19th Century,” <i>Ethnobotany Research and Applications</i> (8 June:153-67, 2010), <a href="https://ethnobotanyjournal.org/index.php/era/article/view/372">https://ethnobotanyjournal.org/index.php/era/article/view/372</a>.</p>
Ian Chilvers, ed., “Mastic,” <i>The Oxford Dictionary of Art</i> (3 ed) (Oxford University Press, 2004), <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198604761.001.0001/acref-9780198604761-e-2275?rskey=FYNEET&result=3">https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198604761.001.0001/acref-9780198604761-e-2275?rskey=FYNEET&result=3</a>.
<p>Image: Anonymous, Johannes von Cuba, and Peter Schöffer, “Mastic," in <i>Gart der Gesundheit</i>, published 28 March 1485, Artstor, <a href="https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/#/asset/BARTSCH_4560083">https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/#/asset/BARTSCH_4560083</a>. From Artstor: The Illustrated Bartsch. Vol. 90, commentary, German Book Illustration through 1500: Herbals through 1500; retrospective conversion of The Illustrated Bartsch (Abaris Books).</p>
<p><i>Elia Zhang, Columbia University</i></p>
Armenian Bole
Armenian bole, also known as bolus armeni, is a reddish clay containing iron oxide. It was used in antiquity as medicine, and later as a paint pigment, ground layer for gliding, polishing compound, and food color. Its elasticity and intense red color makes it sought after by painters and goldsmiths.
<p>At the end of the fourteenth century and start of the fifteenth century, Armenian bole as a recommended base for water gilding was mentioned for the first time by Johannes Archerius and Cennino Cennini. The red color of the gilding base in many fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italian manuscripts is likely Armenian bole or a similar red earth. The usage of Armenian bole reached its peak between the end of the fourteenth century and the eighteenth century, both in the western tradition as well as the east.</p>
<p>As its name suggests, Armenian bole comes from Armenia and surrounding areas of the Mediterranean. It was imported into Europe particularly for its use in gilding but also for its medicinal use. Increased importation of Armenian bole in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been attributed to a number of reasons. One is the spread of water gilding techniques and their practice throughout Europe. Another explanation is increased demand for its believed healing effects against the plague during the epidemics of the time.</p>
<p>As the mining of similar clays spread throughout regions of Europe in the sixteenth century, the import of Mediterranean boles gradually decreased in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Emanuel Mendes da Costa mentioned that it was “dug in Armenia, but is seldom or never to be found genuine in our shops” in 1757. The term “bole” was confused or interchanged with terms like “red earth” or “red ochre,” and other red clays were sold as or substituted for Armenian bole. As such, the exact composition of Armenian bole used by painters was (and to some degree still is) unclear.</p>
In Ms. Fr. 640:
<blockquote>Fol. 6r - “For laying down and seating burnished gold and giving red or green or blue”<br />
…Next take fine boli armeni* & sanguine, as much of one as of the other, also lamb tallow the size of a bean or a pea depending on the quantity of bole, and a little willow charcoal, or as much as the tallow, & half a walnut shell full of half-burned saffron. Some put in a little candy sugar. Grind all together with water, & apply it without gum or glue, & let it dry, & rub the place that you want to gild with a piece of white cloth to better smooth it, & when the rubbed place is a little shiny, it is a sign that the gold will be carried well…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 7v - “Against gonorrhea”<br />
Aquæ fabrorum antiquæ lb i., boli Armeniæ in tel tenuissimum pollinem redactæ ℥.i., mellis communis ʒ.iii. coquantur ad mellis despumationem. Tum refrigerata colentur cum forti expressione & de colatura utatur per injectionem. <br />
[Translation: Old smiths' water, i lb, Armenian bole reduced to the finest powder, i ℥, common honey, iii ʒ, shall be boiled to clarify the honey. Once cooled, it shall be strained with great pressure & the filtrate shall be used by injection.]</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 12v - “Molding stucco promptly”<br />
Grind & pulverize finely brick or Armenian bole or sanguine & incorporate it with melted wax, & thus melted, cast like the others on a relief medal, & thus you will have a hollow form where you will be able to cast with plaster, pestled paper, or terre chimolée.</blockquote>
<p>Cennino Cennini, <i>The Craftsman's Handbook: The Italian "Il Libro Dell' Arte,"</i> trans. Daniel V. Thompson (New York, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960).</p>
<p>David A. Bender, “Armenian bole” in <i>A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition</i> (4 ed) (Oxford University Press, 2014). <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191752391.001.0001/acref-9780191752391-e-363?rskey=o6NulN&result=1">https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191752391.001.0001/acref-9780191752391-e-363?rskey=o6NulN&result=1</a>.</p>
<p>David Hradil et al., “Late Gothic/Early Renaissance Gilding Technology and the Traditional Poliment Material ‘Armenian Bole’: Truly Red Clay, or Rather Bauxite?” <i>Applied Clay Science</i> 135 (2017): pp. 271-281, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2016.10.004">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2016.10.004</a>.</p>
<p>M. Da Costa, <i>Natural History of Fossils</i> (Royal Society of London, 1757).</p>
<p>Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, and Tracey Chaplin, <i>The Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments</i> (Elsevier-Butterworth Heinemen, British Library, 2004).</p>
<p>Image: Anonymous, “Armenian Bole Being Dug from a Clay Pit,” woodcut for chapter 26 of <i>The Tract on Stones in the Hortus Sanitatis</i>, 1491; Artstor, <a href="https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/#/asset/BARTSCH_3950036">https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/#/asset/BARTSCH_3950036</a>. From Artstor: The Illustrated Bartsch. Vol. 90, commentary, German Book Illustration through 1500: Herbals through 1500; retrospective conversion of The Illustrated Bartsch (Abaris Books).</p>
<p><i>Elia Zhang, Columbia University</i></p>
Storax/styrax
Storax, also called styrax, is a fragrant gum resin obtained from the genus <i>Liquidambar,</i> especially <i>L. orientalis</i>. It has been used mainly in medicines and perfumes. A similar resin, also called storax or styrax benzoin, is derived from various tree species in the genus <i>Styrax</i>. It too is a fragrant gum used in perfumes and incense.
<p><i>Liquidambar orientalis</i> comes from Turkey. It is also known as “Turkish sweetgum”. It is widely distributed across southwestern Anatolia nowadays. </p>
<p>Benzoin styrax is found across Southeast Asia and in particular the island of Sumatra. </p>
<p>As early as the 6th century, storax was transported from Egypt to Rome for use in churches. It was one among a large quantity of aromatics that were imported to Rome. According to a recently-edited manuscript of the tenth-century Egyptian Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Tamīmī’, storax was also used in dyeing recipes along with saffron, sandalwood, and musk during that time. In the early modern and modern period, storax is recorded in Mexican pharmacies during Spanish colonial rule. It belonged to the European medicinal corpus that was brought to the New World.</p>
In Ms. Fr. 640:
<blockquote>Fol. 7v - "For relieving the pain of G."<br />
Take half a lb of finely pulverized golden & yellow marcasite, half an ounce of storax, 4 lb of urine, incorporate everything well together, little by little, in a mortar, then boil all together quite thoroughly. But the pot needs to be well covered in order that the fumes do not exhale. Next distill the urine, imbibed & separated by inclination, in an alembic, well-luted & covered with a copper helmet & soak a linen cloth with the said water & apply it lukewarm on the pain.</blockquote>
<p>Nicole Basile, “Gout or Gonorrhea? The Riddle of G.” in <i>Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition and English Translation of BnF Ms. Fr. 640</i>, ed. Making and Knowing Project, Pamela H. Smith, Naomi Rosenkranz, Tianna Helena Uchacz, Tillmann Taape, Clément Godbarge, Sophie Pitman, Jenny Boulboullé, Joel Klein, Donna Bilak, Marc Smith, and Terry Catapano (New York: Making and Knowing Project, 2020), <a href="https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_054_sp_17">https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_054_sp_17</a>. DOI: <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.7916/pc0c-te91">https://www.doi.org/10.7916/pc0c-te91</a>.</p>
<p>Paula De Vos, “The ‘Prince of Medicine’: Yūḥannā Ibn Māsawayh and the Foundations of the Western Pharmaceutical Tradition,” <i>Isis</i> 104, no. 4 (2013), <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/674940">https://doi.org/10.1086/674940</a>.</p>
<p>Anya H. King, “Gilding Textiles and Printing Blocks in Tenth-Century Egypt,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 140, no. 2 (2020), <a href="https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.140.2.0455">https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.140.2.0455</a>.</p>
<p>Louis Duchesne, ed., <i>Le Liber Pontificalis: Texte, introduction et commentaire</i> (Paris: E. Thorin, 1886), I, pp. 174, 177–8, 183. Also Atchley, <i>Use of Incense</i>, p. 141.</p>
<p>"Storax," in <i>The American Heritage Dictionary of Medicine</i>, edited by The Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries, 2nd ed, Houghton Mifflin (2015).</p>
<p>Image: Faik, Yaltırık and Asuman Efe. “386. LIQUIDAMBAR ORIENTALIS: Hamamelidaceae.” <i>Curtis’s Botanical Magazine</i> 17, no. 2 (2000), <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/45065424">http://www.jstor.org/stable/45065424</a>.</p>
Dragon's blood
Dragon’s blood is the reddish dried resin derived from different species of a number of the plant genera generally known as the “Dragon Tree.”
<p>Dragon’s blood, obtained from the species <i>Dracaena draco</i>, <i>Dracaena cinnabari</i>, and likely <i>Daemonorops draco</i> from the island of Sokotra, was available in Europe since at least the first century CE. Later, with the expansion of European voyages, the resin was also obtained from <i>Dracaena draco</i> from the Canary Islands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.</p>
<p>Although not as popular as brazilwood, cochineal, and vermilion, dragon’s blood was used as a colorant to create a red pigment throughout the medieval and early modern periods.</p>
<p>Dragon’s blood is used in a wide variety of applications in seven recipes in Ms. Fr. 640. It is used as a remedy as well as an ingredient in colored varnishes.</p>
<p>When soaked in spirits, it can be used as a glue, and, as the title of the recipe implies, this glue would be used to connect two halves of an imitation gem to make a “doublet.”</p>
<blockquote>Fol. 7r - "Doublets"<br />
Good dragon’s blood soaked in eau-de-vie carries its mastic or glue in itself, as do sap green & saffron.</blockquote>
<p>The material is fully introduced in this recipe, which explains how to prepare dragon’s blood for use—as in the “doublet” recipe, many applications require that it be soaked in alcohol—and how to select good quality samples for purchase.</p>
<blockquote>Fol. 29v - "Dragon's blood"<br />
The darker dragon’s blood is the best & has more of a tint; it is the tear that is found in gr pieces like peas and large hazelnuts which look like [illustration].<br />
Take a well chosen tear of it which shows off its transparent red. And in a glass bottle put the best eau-de-vie you can find, in sufficient quantity. For it And stop it well and so diligently that it does not vent, otherwise it would be worth nothing. And leave it thus for a long time, because the longer it stays there, the more beautiful & better it will be & it will dissolve if it is good, otherwise it will become like wine lees. When you want to use it, make a small hole in the stopper of the bottle & pour a little & stop it again each time, then apply it on gold.<br />
The good kind of dragon’s blood can be found in large pieces like pieces of cake this one has no value and is adulterated, & once broken it shows on its edges scales, transparent as ro rouge clair enamel, it is also lumpy in some parts like small rubies. The eau-de-vie needs to be very ardent & passed* several times.</blockquote>
<p>Instructions to stop a bleeding nose by applying a powder of dragon’s blood (medical use).</p>
<blockquote>Fol. 38v - "Against nosebleed and for dyeing"<br />
Pestle some sorrel or lapathum acutum* of the sort that is red-veined, which is called dragon’s blood, and apply it to the forehead of the one who bleeds. This herb is a strong dye & makes beautiful violet.</blockquote>
<p>The recipe gives detailed instructions for producing a shiny, enamel-like material from a dragon’s blood solution, and applying it to silver sheets, presumably in order to make the eponymous cross.</p>
<blockquote>Fol. 40v - "Cross of the commanders of Malta"<br />
This beautiful rouge clair which makes the field of the white enamel cross is of fine tear of dragon’s blood tempered with eau-de-vie or else Indian laque platte, which in my opinion is made in Flanders, tempered with clear turpentine & tear of mastic & laid down on a silver leaf, not the kind which the painters use, but a thicker kind, which is burnished by those who make gemstone foils or by goldsmiths, & that gives it this beautiful brilliance.</blockquote>
<p>The recipe gives a similar recipe for a varnish that, colored with dragon’s blood, can be used as a red-tinted coating for wood.</p>
<blockquote>Fol. 98r - "Varnish for lutes"<br />
They take a little turpentine, & oil of turpentine or of spike lavender, & amber pulverized & passed very subtly, & make like that of mastic, & add in a little dragon’s blood to color it and make it reddish, and others some terra merita for yellow.</blockquote>
<p>This is the only explicit use of dragon’s blood as a colorant, but, as in other recipes, it is used particularly for application on a material other than a canvas or panel, and it is used in combination with metal leaf.</p>
<blockquote>Fol. 102v - "Painting on crystal or glass"<br />
They paint in oil without lines, except for the faces where they trace the nose & the mouth with black in small work, then they make strokes & highlights in white, next they coat all with flesh color. And as for the ground, they make it with azur d’Acre for more beauty, or with lake for a quickly-done red, or with dragon’s blood for the most beauty. But one needs to layer it little by little so that it appears even & of one color, & thus for other colors. Next, they put underneath it a foil backing for topaz, or one of gold or silver.</blockquote>
<p>Instructions here are for imitating the visual effect of dragon’s blood on gold or silver by using lake pigment, and do not involve the material itself.</p>
<blockquote> Fol. 165r – “Dragon’s blood”<br />
It can be imitated with lake, which surpasses the dragon's blood in beauty if, tempered in oil, you glaze on gold or silver. Tempered in varnish, it dies.</blockquote>
<p>Robin Reich, “Dragon's Blood,” in <i>Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition and English Translation of BnF Ms. Fr. 640</i>, ed. Making and Knowing Project, Pamela H. Smith, Naomi Rosenkranz, Tianna Helena Uchacz, Tillmann Taape, Clément Godbarge, Sophie Pitman, Jenny Boulboullé, Joel Klein, Donna Bilak, Marc Smith, and Terry Catapano (New York: Making and Knowing Project, 2020) <a href="https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_037_sp_16">https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_037_sp_16</a>. DOI: <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.7916/428x-aq29">https://www.doi.org/10.7916/428x-aq29</a>.</p>
<p>L. Masschelein-Kleiner, “Dragon’s blood,” in <i>Ancient Binding Media, Varnishes and Adhesives</i>, trans by Janet Bridgland, Sue Walston, and A.E. Werner (Rome: ICCROM, 1985), 75.</p>
<p>Image: An engraving depicting <i>Draco arbor</i>. The Dragon Tree, from "Theatrum Botanicum" ("The Theater of Plants: Or, An Herball of a Large Extent…") by John Parkinson (London, 1640). Research Library, The Getty Research Institute (<a href="archive.org">archive.org</a>).</p>
<p><i>Helena Seo, Columbia University</i></p>
Lac
A brownish resinous material produced on twigs of certain trees, such as several species of soapberry and acacia trees, by the female lac insect, <i>Laccifer lacca</i> (or <i>Kerria lacca</i>), indigenous to India.
<p>The term “lac” originates from Hindi and Sanskrit words, respectively <i>lakh</i> and <i>laksha</i>, which mean “hundred thousand,” referring to the large quantity of insects needed to produce enough lac material. </p>
<p>Used as early as around 1200 BCE in India, lac was employed in making sealing wax, dye, and varnish (like shellac). In the seventeenth century, Europe began to import shellac and lac dye, for which lac was particularly valued as a dark red colorant. </p>
<p>Lac lends its name to lake pigments, a broader term for a number of colorants derived from organic sources such as plants or animals. This more general meaning is found in Ms. 640:</p>
<p><i>Lacque platte</i> – dried lake pigment, formed into a flat shape for storage and sale (flat squares or tablets).<br />
<i>Lacque ronde</i> – dried lake pigment, shaped into round beads for storage and sale.</p>
<blockquote>Fol. 40v - “Cross of the commanders of Malta”<br />
This beautiful rouge clair which makes the field of the white enamel cross is of fine tear of dragon’s blood tempered with eau-de-vie or else Indian laque platte, which in my opinion is made in Flanders, tempered with clear turpentine & tear of mastic & laid down on a silver leaf, not the kind which the painters use, but a thicker kind, which is burnished by those who make gemstone foils or by goldsmiths, & that gives it this beautiful brilliance.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 6r - “For laying down and seating burnished gold and giving red or green or blue”
… Having rubbed, wash with a clean paintbrush soaked in clear water the place that you want to gild & immediately apply the gold, which you will burnish once dry. And if you want to lay in rouge clair & glaze with it de, grind Venice laque platte on marble with walnut or linseed oil. Once ground, mix turpentine or spike lavender varnish & apply on the gold with the paintbrush. Brazilwood & laque ronde die…</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol.3r - “Counterfeit coral”<br />
One needs to first make the branches of wood or take a bizarre thorn branch, then melt a lb of the most beautiful clear pitch resin and put in one ounce of subtly ground vermilion with walnut oil, and if you add in a little Venice laque platte, the color will be more vivid, and stir everything in the resin melted over a charcoal fire and not of flame, for fear that it catches fire. Next dip in your branches while turning, & if any filaments should remain on it, turn the branch over the heat of the charcoal.</blockquote>
<p>Donald F. Lach, “The Individual Arts,” in <i>Asia In the Making of Europe</i>, Vol. 2, Book 1 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1965).</p>
<p>“Lac (resin),” The Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus Online, <a href="http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300012946">http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300012946</a>.</p>
<p>Jo Kirby and Marika Spring, “Ms. Fr. 640 in the World of Pigments in Sixteenth-Century Europe,” in <i>Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition and English Translation of BnF Ms. Fr. 640</i>, ed. Making and Knowing Project, Pamela H. Smith, Naomi Rosenkranz, Tianna Helena Uchacz, Tillmann Taape, Clément Godbarge, Sophie Pitman, Jenny Boulboullé, Joel Klein, Donna Bilak, Marc Smith, and Terry Catapano (New York: Making and Knowing Project, 2020) <a href="https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_321_ie_19">https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_321_ie_19</a>. DOI: <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.7916/vsrt-8r31">https://www.doi.org/10.7916/vsrt-8r31</a>.</p>
<p>“Lac.” The Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia (CAMEO), ed. Michele Derrick. <a href="http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Lac">http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Lac</a>.</p>
<p>Teresa Soley, “Imitation Marble,” in <i>Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition and English Translation of BnF Ms. Fr. 640</i>, ed. Making and Knowing Project, Pamela H. Smith, Naomi Rosenkranz, Tianna Helena Uchacz, Tillmann Taape, Clément Godbarge, Sophie Pitman, Jenny Boulboullé, Joel Klein, Donna Bilak, Marc Smith, and Terry Catapano (New York: Making and Knowing Project, 2020) <a href="https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_040_sp_16">https://edition640.makingandknowing.org/#/essays/ann_040_sp_16</a>. DOI: <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.7916/tpgj-d438">https://www.doi.org/10.7916/tpgj-d438</a>.</p>
<p>Image: Drawing of the insect Kerria lacca and its shellac tubes, from <i>Indian Insect, Life: a Manual of the Insects of the Plains (Tropical India)</i> by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy (Calcutta; Thacker, Spink & Co., W. Thacker & Co., 2 Creed Lane, London, 1909). NCSU Libraries (<a href="archive.org">archive.org</a>).</p>
<p><i>Helena Seo, Columbia University</i></p>
Candy Sugar
<p>In the fourteenth century, the word “candy” was an alternative form of the word “candi,” which referred to crystallized sugar. The use of the meaning "candy" in French (<i>la canne</i>) did not appear until the twentieth century, when Gaston-Martin wrote <i>Histoire de l'esclavage dans les colonies françaises</i> in 1948.</p>
<p>Studies of sixteenth-century painted miniatures show that dissolved sugar candy was added to the binding medium (usually, <a href="https://catapanoth.com/omandka/exhibits/show/global-ingredients--the-divers/item/8">gum arabic</a>) to influence how the paint dried and how some colors looked in the final painting. This application of sugar candy is described in Nicholas Hilliard’s <i>A Treatise Concerning the Arte of Limning</i> (ca. 1600) as well as in Ms. Fr. 640.</p>
In the early modern period, sugar production was mainly focused on cane sugar collected from the stalks of tall grasses in the genus <i>Saccharum</i>. During the late medieval period, large-scale sugar production developed in the Mediterranean, especially in Crete and Cyprus. In the second half of the fifteenth century, production moved to the Atlantic islands, particularly Madeira. In the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, production shifted again to coastal Brazil. In the late seventeenth century, the French colonies in the Caribbean became the so-called "sugar islands,” and sugar became the most important plantation crop next to tobacco. By the late nineteenth century, sugar production was globalized.
In Ms. Fr. 640:
<blockquote>Fol. 6r - "For laying down and seating burnished gold and giving red or green or blue"<br />
...Some put in a little candy sugar. Grind all together with water, & apply it without gum or glue, & let it dry, & rub the place that you want to gild with a piece of white cloth to better smooth it, & when the rubbed place is a little shiny, it is a sign that the gold will be carried well...</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fol. 32r - "For layering gold in distemper"<br />
Common painters & scribes make batture, that is joiner’s glue tempered with water on the fire, moderately clear, mixed with very little honey, that is to say a few drops to make it stick. And with it they form letters, or that which they want to gild, with a paintbrush, and immediately after layer the gold, but they never do their work quite neatly, and if there is a lot of honey it dries only with great difficulty. This layer is undone in the rain.<br />
Others do better, they temper candy sugar in water and mix it with sanguine that they call cocon, thoroughly ground, adding in a little soap. This is done neatly, & renders gold beautiful if one uses it as the seat.</blockquote>
<p>B. W. Higman, “The Sugar Revolution,” <i>The Economic History Review</i> 53, no. 2 (2000): 213–36, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2598696">http://www.jstor.org/stable/2598696</a>.</p>
<p>Christine Slottved Kimbriel and Paola Ricciardi, “A Closer Look at the Cabinet Miniature of Lord Herbert of Cherbury,” National Trust,
<a href="https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/article/a-closer-look-at-the-cabinet-miniature-of-lord-herbert-of-cherbury">https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/article/a-closer-look-at-the-cabinet-miniature-of-lord-herbert-of-cherbury</a>.</p>
<p>Jason W. Moore, “Sugar and the Expansion of the Early Modern World-Economy: Commodity Frontiers, Ecological Transformation, and Industrialization,” Review, Fernand Braudel Center, 2000, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40241510">http://www.jstor.org/stable/40241510</a>.</p>
<p>Image: Sir John Bowring, “The beautiful tall reeds of the sugar cane, their pennon-like leaves gleaming in the sunshine,” J.W. Parker and son, London, 1857; Cornell University Library, 1900/1919, Artstor, <a href="https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/CORNELL_ECHOLS_1039405990">https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/CORNELL_ECHOLS_1039405990</a>.</p>
<p><i>Elia Zhang, Columbia University</i></p>
Fenugreek
Fenugreek, <i>Trigonella foenum-graecum</i>, is a plant in the pea family. Fenugreek seed is yellow and brown in color, and is frequently used in India for making curries.
Fenugreek is native to Southern Europe and Asia. In classical times, it was well known in Europe for the medicinal properties of its seeds. Evidence also shows that fenugreek was used for culinary purposes in ancient Egypt.
In Ms. Fr. 640:
<blockquote>Fol. 52r - "The work done in Algiers"<br />
Take a colt of three or 4 years & feed it on rye barley & straw pig cut in the manner one feeds horses in Spain, and water it with good fountain or river water. I do not know if it would be good to water it occasionally with water of sulfurous baths, & to sometimes give it fenugreek or other hot foods, for the intention of the worker is to it to use the heat of its dung, & the climate here is cooler than that of Algiers…</blockquote>
<p>Alan Davidson and Tom Jaine, eds., “Fenugreek,” <i>The Oxford Companion to Food</i> (3 ed) (Oxford University Press, 2014), <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806819.001.0001/acref-9780192806819-e-2129?rskey=j1yQNk&result=2">https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192806819.001.0001/acref-9780192806819-e-2129?rskey=j1yQNk&result=2</a>.</p>
<p>Image: Zakariya ibn Muhammad Qazwini and Muhammad ibn Muhammad Shakir Ruzmah-'i Nathani. Illustration: “Fenugreek, Chickpea, and Melilot, Leaf from Turkish Version of the Wonders of Creation”, Text Title: “Tercüme-yi 'Aca'ib ül-mahlukat,” (1121 AH/AD 1717 [Ottoman]) (The Walters Art Museum, Acquired by Henry Walters, 1931), <a href="https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/asset/AWALTERSIG_10313537049">https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/asset/AWALTERSIG_10313537049</a>.</p>
<p><i>Elia Zhang, Columbia University</i></p>