A Booke of Secrets is a 1596 translation of a Dutch edition (which itself may have been translated from a 1531 German text) that contains a wonderful collection of ink recipes. These include iron gall ink recipes formulated for paper and parchment, and recipes for making different colored inks. In addition there are instructions for etching in metal and coloring quill pens. The text concludes with a technical glossary and a list of source literature.

A Booke of Secrets was published in 1995 by The Caber Press in Manuscript Inks. This publication also contains instructions for making iron sulfate (ferrous sulfate/copperas/green vitriol) and iron gall ink, and includes a text on the manufacture of carbon ink sticks by Claes G. Lindblad. Manuscript Inks can be purchased by contacting Jack Thompson. He also sells sample sets of various iron gall inks.

This text is a good example of a type of source used by art historians to research historic artist techniques. You might find it helpful to refer to Source Reserach which illustrates the difficulties in interpreting these sources.

A booke of secrets

Hundreds of recipes for iron gall ink have been published over the centuries. The sheer variety and number of these recipes testify to the widespread use of iron gall ink and its primary importance to our literary and artistic traditions. Artists and scribes, domestics and entrepreneurs ­ each concocted their own formula to suit their particular needs.

Interest in making historic inks has increased in the last several years, due in large part to the efforts of a few ink enthusiasts who have shared their vast knowledge and experience on the subject. This website is an effort to continue this dialogue, by sharing information about iron gall ink and promoting an appreciation for its unique place in history.

It is surprisingly easy to make iron gall ink - the earliest recipes are often the simplest - and the ingredients are inexpensive and readily available.

Foreword

The original copy of the text which follows is owned by the Yale Center for British Art and the editor appreciates the good offices of Elisabeth Fairman in making it available for this publication.

After reading a photocopy of the text, I thought it would be worthwhile to reproduce the text with a technical glossary to help explain some of the more obscure terms.

The term, conterfein, was located in only one source; Hoover's translation of De Re Metallica. "Well leaded" has been taken to mean "glazed," given that most recipes for early glazing compounds include lead in their formulae.

The original text was black letter, with paragraph headings in a roman font. Aside from changing the black letter to a more legible font, the text is, for the most part, unchanged from the original; "u" has been replaced with "v" where appropriate in modern usage (i.e., "conuenient" is now "convenient," etc.). One spelling error has been corrected ("tino" is "into") and a missing word has been supplied: "To keepe that neither Mise nor [moths] eat or fret the paper...."

Secreta, or books of secrets, have been a mainstay of scholarship and research for a very long time; the tradition continues today in the notes which students make in class, in a lab, and in the library. In this, they follow a very old tradition; accurate information mingled with folklore and opinion. The recipe for a gold color, on p. 9, is a goo example. The reference to Michaelmas day [29 September] suggests an English origin for that recipe, while the reference to Saint Laurance day [10 August] suggests a French origin.

The Dutch work which was translated into English was entitled: Ettliche Künste, auff mancherley Weisz Dinten und allerhand Faben zu bereyten; essentially the same as: Artliche kunste mancherley weyse Dinten und aller hand farben zubereyten, which was published in Nuremberg, in 1531. Neither the Dutch nor the German texts have been compared with the English translation, but it would seem that they are, more or less, the same.

I am indebted to David Meesters, of Amsterdam, for providing information about aloe epaticum, via internet.

Jack C. Thompson
Portland, Oregon
August, 1995