Daf Ditty Eruvin 13: Ink!

God’s eternal glory could not be described even if the heavens were parchment, and the forests quills; if all the seas were ink, as well as every gathered water; even if the earth’s inhabitants were scribes and recorders of initials

Ilana Kurshan1

1 https://ilanakurshan.com/

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But mine, and mine I loved, and mine I praised, And mine that I was proud on, mine so much That I myself was to myself not mine, Valuing of her—why, she, O she is fall'n Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea Hath drops too few to wash her clean again And salt too little which may season give To her foul tainted flesh!

Shakespeare Much Ado Act 4 Scene1

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Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Anywhere that you find a statement introduced with: A certain disciple said before Rabbi Akiva in the name of Rabbi Yishmael, it is none other than Rabbi Meir, who was the student who served both Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Akiva.

As it was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir said: When I was a student with Rabbi Yishmael, I used to put iron sulfate [kankantom] into the ink with which I wrote Torah scrolls, and he did not say anything to me. When I came to study with Rabbi Akiva, he prohibited me from doing so.

The Gemara challenges this statement: Is that so? Didn’t Rav Yehuda say that Shmuel said in the name of Rabbi Meir: When I studied with Rabbi Akiva as his disciple, I used to put iron sulfate into the ink, and he did not say anything to me. But when I came to study with Rabbi Yishmael, he said to me: My son, what is your vocation?

I replied: I am a scribe [lavlar] who writes Torah scrolls. He said to me: My son, be careful in your vocation, as your vocation is heavenly service, and care must be taken lest you omit a single letter or add a single letter out of place, and you will end up destroying the whole world in its entirety. Addition or omission of a single letter can change the meaning from truth [emet] to death [met].

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I said to him: I have one substance called iron sulfate, which I place into the ink, and therefore I am not concerned. He said to me: May one place iron sulfate into the ink? Didn’t the Torah state with regard to sota: “And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness” (Numbers 5:23)? The Torah requires writing that can be blotted out.

The Gemara explains that this is what Rabbi Meir is saying to Rabbi Yishmael: There is no need to mention defective and plene words, as I am an expert; however, even with regard to the concern that a fly might come and land on the crown of the letter dalet and blot it out and render it a reish, thereby changing the meaning of the word, I am not concerned, as I have a substance called iron sulfate that I place into the ink so that it will not be erased.

TOSFOS תופסות ה"ד םותנקנק (Tosfos brings two opinions about what this compound is.) שריפ סרטנוקה מרדא י נ ' ' ט (a) Explanation #1 (Rashi): This is Adarmint (in old French. Targum ha'La'az says that this is vitriol. It is clear from the next line of Tosfos that this is not vidriol (in old French). 'בשרו ם' שריפ םותנקנקד איה עקרק הקורי ירוקש ן התוא ו ירדי ו ' ' ל ןכו ךורעב (b) Explanation #2 (Rashbam, Aruch): Kankantom is yellow earth called vidriol. 'רו ת' ימנ קסופ ןכ וקיתב ן רפס הרות רתומד תתל ימרדא נ ' ט' ךותל ידה ו רפסל הרות ילוכל לכ רתרס ויהךת ''ניראתלרודהו פ ןויב כקו ינת ר מלע א ואלד יה י נ ו םותנקנק (c) Support: Also R. Tam rules like this in laws of Sefer Torah. All permit to put vitriol in the ink for a Sefer Torah, for it is not Kankantom. 'או ת' תכסמבד הדנ ד( ' .טי ) נת ן רוחש תרחכ שרפמו םתה אתרח יפכשואד 'פבו ב' גד יטי ן ד( ' ( ןייג ''ב פשא תחםהשפו רכרח ןנ ).י 'ד הנ כמדת א .טי ) מאק ר םותנקנקד אוה אתרח יפכשואד םא ןכ עמשמ אוהש רוחש וליאו ו ירדי ו ' ל' הקורי הקורי ל' ' ו ירדי ו וליאו רוחש אוהש עמשמ ןכ םא יפכשואד אתרח אוה םותנקנקד ר איה המודו תיכוכזל לעו םש תיכוכז תארקנ ו ירדי ו ' ל' (d)

4 Question: In Nidah (19a), a Mishnah teaches that black [blood] is like Charas, and it explains there Charta d'Ushkefi, and in Gitin (19a) it says that Kankantom is Charta d'Ushkefi. This connotes that it is black, and vidriol is yellow, and resembles glass. It is called vidriol! יפלו ' סרטנוקה נ אחי (e) Answer #1: This is fine for Rashi. (Kankantom is not vidriol). 'רו ' י שרפמ רחאד נחוטש םי התוא הפי תתל ךותל ידה ו זא איה תרחשמ (f) Answer #2 (Ri): After they grind it well to put it in the ink, it blackens.

JASTROW

5 The Gemara explains that this is what Rabbi Meir is saying to Rabbi Yishmael: There is no need to mention defective and plene words, as I am an expert; however, even with regard to the concern that a fly might come and land on the crown of the letter dalet and blot it out and render it a reish, thereby changing the meaning of the word, I am not concerned, as I have a substance called iron sulfate that I place into the ink so that it will not be erased.

The Gemara continues the discussion of iron sulfate. It was taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yehuda says that Rabbi Meir would say: One may place iron sulfate into the ink that is to be used for all sacred writings, except for the writing of the Torah passage with regard to a sota, as it must be possible to erase that writing. Rabbi Yaakov says in his name: Except for the writing of the Torah passage with regard to a sota used in the Temple in the ordeal to determine the guilt or innocence of the wife suspected of adultery.

TOSFOS תופסות ה"ד ץוח תשרפמ הטוס (Tosfos explains why R. Yishmael forbids in the entire Torah.) 'רו לאעמשי היהש רסוא לכב הרותה הלוכ (a) Implied question: Why did R. Yishmael forbid in the entire Torah? אמש היה שרוד הרזג הוש הטוסמ וא הביתכ הביתכ וא ג ' ש' תרחא (b) Answer #1: Perhaps he expounded a Gezeirah Shavah from Sotah - "Kesivah-Kesivah" or another Gezeirah Shavah. יא ימנ נברדמ ן (c)

6 Answer #2: He forbids mid'Rabanan.

Steinzaltz (OBM)

Rabbi Jay Kelman writes:2

Our Daf: "When I [Rav Meir] came to Rabbi Yishmael, he said to me, 'My son, what is your occupation?' I told him, 'I am a scribe', and he said to me, 'Be meticulous in your work, for your work is the work of heaven—perhaps you will omit one letter or add one letter; you would thereby destroy the entire world'"

Being a sofer, a religious scribe, is hard work, requiring great meticulousness, long hours and little pay. Mistakes cannot be tolerated. Omitting even one letter in writing a mezuzah, tefillin or sefer Torah renders the text unfit for use, and often such an error cannot be fixed, rendering hours of ,k’sidran , סכ י רד ן work useless.(This is because of the special law of tefillin and mezuzot known as the requirement that each letter be written in the exact order. While one could, in theory, go back and erase every letter from the mistaken point onwards, this would only work if one had not subsequently written the name of God. Such a rule thankfully does not exist in writing a sefer

2 https://www.torahinmotion.org/discussions-and-blogs/eiruvin-13a-just-one-letter

7 Torah; if it did, it would be next to impossible to ever write a kosher sefer Torah, it being beyond human capability to write the 305,000 letters without error. Yet, until such an error is fixed, and any missing letters added, the Torah remains invalid for use.)

Hence, Rav Ishmaels’ admonition to Rav Meir to be very, very careful in his work as a scribe. While this may seem excessive, modern technology actually sheds light on this phenomenon. Machines that cost millions can—and often do—break due to some problem with a part that may cost mere pennies. Often after some terrible accident, investigators will discover that it was the most minor of parts and errors that made all the difference.

Rashi, apparently focused on Rabbi Ishmaels’ warning that a missing or additional letter destroys the world, interprets this teaching in a more focused manner. He explains that if one were, for rendering it as--" תמא ,in the phrase, "The Lord our G-d is true א ,example, to leave off the aleph dead—this would be a blasphemous statement like no other. Conversely, if one were to add , תמ , רבדיו ,to the expression, "and G-d spoke to Moshe"—rendering vayidaber , ו ,the letter vav and they spoke to Moshe"—we would be (inadvertently) guilty of" , ורבדיו ,as vayidabru polytheism. While in comparison with atheism, this is a major improvement, it is still something for which a Jew must be prepared to die rather than accept.

For those more mystically inclined, our Sages teach that God looked in the Torah and created the world; the Torah serving as the architectural blueprint of the world. Commentaries explain (see, for example, Maharsha) that God actually used the letters of the Torah to create the world, so that a missing letter has ramifications beyond the validity of the Torah scroll. If one were to assume, as the kabbalists taught, that the letters of the Torah are the names of God, it is readily understandable that a sofer would want to be extremely careful about missing letters.

The warning of Rabbi Yishmael to Rabbi Meir regarding the importance of even just one letter takes on additional significance in light of the Gemara's (13b) assertion that Rav Meir, whose name translates as "light", was actually a nickname given because "he enlightened the eyes of the sages in [their understanding] of halacha", with his actual name being Rav Elazar ben Arach. The Talmud in Shabbat (147b) records that Rav Elazar ben Arach was caught up in seeking a life of luxury and forgot his Torah learning. When after a long absence, he returned to the beit midrash this month is for you) he read it as) ," שדחה ה ז ה םכל " and was given an aliyah, instead of reading ,to a reish " שדחה " of ד ,his heart was deaf). His first mistake, the changing the daled) " שרחה ה י ה םבל " was a very minor change in the form of the letter, but one that fundamentally changed " שרחה " in ,ר the meaning of the verse.

It surely is not coincidental that Rav Meir, or shall we say Rav Elazar ben Arach, responded to Rabbi Yishmael with the information that he adds kankantom, vitriol, to his ink, making it impossible to erase and thereby guarding against the possibility of "a fly perching on the crownlet It was exactly these letters that Rav Elazar ben Arach ."ר and blotting it out, turning it into a ד of a had confused years earlier.

8 such a mistake would , שרח and שדח These are not letters one wants to mix up! Besides the error of another god. It is for this , רחא G-d is one) being read as , דחא ' ה ) have the first line of the Shema . דחא reason that the custom when reciting the Shema is to elongate the

Rav Amnon Bazak writes:3

A type of criticism seeks to explore the emergence of the precise biblical text that we possess and the changes that this text has undergone over the course of generations, by comparing manuscripts, examining textual witnesses, and employing various philological tools. The aim of lower criticism is to locate textual variants and to try to evaluate their relative accuracy. As such, this realm of study is not committed to any particular textual version. This, once again, creates a fundamental gap between the traditional Jewish approach maintained over the generations, and the academic approach. In general, the traditional approach would not dream of addressing the possibility of textual variants:

“There is a concept in Judaism, deeply rooted in the consciousness of the nation, concerning the sanctity of the biblical text, even its very letters. This is usually explained in historical terms: namely, the text, down to the last letter, has reached us in the same original form in which it was first composed. Over the course of many generations, this concept has come to assume something of the validity of a fundamental principle of Judaism, by virtue of many statements surrounding this subject, in both halakha and aggada, as well as in Jewish thought. Thus, any method that casts doubt on the absolute reliability of the transmission causes a believing Jew to recoil.”4

First, is the text that we have today indeed the original text of the Tanakh? Second, if what we have is not identical in every detail to the original text, does this allow for the possibility of proposing emendations to our text? Our discussion will address the history of the text through the generations, as well as the various textual witnesses, including inter alia the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Torah, the Septuagint, and other translations.

B. The Tanakh text during the period of Chazal

From time immemorial, great care has been taken concerning the precise transmission of the text, which has been regarded as having great importance. Josephus, writing in the 1st century C.E., testifies: “The scribes have taken care to maintain extreme accuracy, and – if I may so bold – they will continue to do so (for all generations).”5 The care taken in preserving the precise text is obvious throughout many rabbinic sources. For instance, in Our Daf R. Meir teaches:

3 https://www.etzion.org.il/en/shiur-7a-nusach-ha-mikra-%E2%80%93-accuracy-biblical-text

4 M. Cohen, “Ha-Idea bi-Devar Kedushat ha-Nussach le-Otiotav u-Bikkoret ha-Text,” in U. Simon (ed.), Ha-Mikra va-Anakhnu, Tel Aviv 5739, pp. 42-43. 5 Josephus, Against Apion, 1, 6.

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“When I came to R. Yishmael, he said to me: My son, what is your occupation? I told him, ‘I am a scribe.’ He said to me, ‘Be meticulous in your work, for your occupation is a sacred one. If you were to omit or add a single letter, you would thereby destroy the entire world.’”

Chazal were altogether proficient with the entirety of the biblical text, as we may deduce from the corpus of midrashim, in which verses from throughout the Tanakh are treated.6 In addition, the Sages also concerned themselves with the clarification of the precise text of the Tanakh, and many sources testify to the tremendous care taken concerning textual details. For example,7 concerning the verse,

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the' 15 וט וּזֱחֶא - ,וּנָל םיִלָﬠֻשׁ -- ﬠֻשׁ לָ םיִ נַּטְק ,םיִ ,םיִ נַּטְק םיִ לָ ﬠֻשׁ '.vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom םיִלְבַּחְמ ;םיִמָרְכּ כוּ רְ מָ ֵ י וּנ , מְ ס ָ .רַ ד ְס ניֵמ ְכ

Song 2:15

There is evidence of a tradition specifying a difference in spelling between the two appearances of the word “shu’alim” – the first time with a ‘vav,’ and the second time without it: “R. Berakhia said: The first [appearance of the word] ‘shu’alim’ is written in plene form, the second – in defective form.”8

Similarly, attention is paid to the tiny yud in the word “teshi,” in the verse:

6 As noted by S. Lieberman, Yevanim ve-Yevanut be-Eretz Yisrael, Jerusalem 5723, p. 189. Admittedly, there were exceptions, as noted already by the Rishonim – “Sometimes they were not proficient in the verses” (Tosafot, Bava Batra 113a); see the anecdote recounted in Bava Kama 54b concerning R. Hiyya bar Abba. However, as Lieberman notes, these were exceptions to the rule. 7 See D. Rosenthal, “Al Derekh Tipulam shel Chazal be-Chilufei Nussach ba-Mikra,” in Y. Zakovitch and E. Rofe (eds.), Sefer Yitzchak Aryeh Zeligman 2, Jerusalem 5743, pp. 397-398. 8 Berakhia’s teaching is reflected in the Koren edition of the Tanakh, but most manuscripts and printed versions do not follow this rule. For instance, in the Aleppo Codex, the word is missing the vav in both instances (see also Minchat Shai), while MS Leningrad includes the vav in both instances.

10 Of the Rock that begot thee thou wast unmindful, and 18 חי רוּצ ְ י ָל ,ְ ד שֶׁ תּ ִ י; }ר{ ,חַכְּשִׁתַּו לֵא לֵא ,חַכְּשִׁתַּו .didst forget God that bore thee .ֶלְלֹחְמ }ס{

Deut 32:18

“Of the Rock that begot you, you are unmindful (teshi)” (Devarim 32:18),9 noting it as an unusual phenomenon: “The yud is small…” (Vayikra Rabba 23:14, Margaliot edition p. 548).

It is clear that, in general, Chazal worked with a single textual version that they all shared. Nevertheless, this does not mean that there was a single textual version that was agreed upon absolutely in all its details, as we gather from various sources.

1. There are instances of questions as to the correct textual version, with the need arising to choose between different versions. In the Sifri Devarim we find:

Three books [of Tanakh] were found in the azara (Temple courtyard): one of the “me’onim,” another of “hi-hi,” and one called sefer za’atutim. [The explanation for these appellations for the books follows:] In one book (the verse in Deut 33:27) was written, “The Eternal God is a dwelling place (“ma’on”), while in the other two it was written “me’ona.” The Sages [therefore] rejected [the version appearing only in] the one copy, and accepted [the version that appeared in] the other two. In one version the word “hi” (“it” or “she”) appeared nine times, while in the other the word “hi” appeared eleven times. The Sages [therefore] rejected the one copy, and accepted the other two. In one version the text read, “and he sent the young men (za’atutei) of Bnei Yisrael” (Shemot 24:5), and “upon the young men (za’atutei) of Bnei Yisrael…” (24:11), while the other two read, “he sent the young men (na’arei) of Bnei Yisrael” and “upon the nobles (atzilei) of Bnei Yisrael” (Shemot 24:11). The Sages [therefore] rejected the one copy and accepted the other two.10

We may assume that the three books found in the courtyard of the Temple represented the most sacred and most important textual witnesses available to the Sages during the Second Temple Period. No two were identical in every detail. The decision of the Sages to establish the “majority version” in each case of discrepancy created an interesting and surprising reality: the standard text for all Torah scrolls was determined in accordance with these three “models” – and, as a result, all three of them became unfit for use, each owing to the specific “defect” that it contained.

9 Here, too, the “authentic” spelling is a matter of debate: while the letter yud in this verse is mentioned in all Masoretic lists of letters that are written in diminutive form, it does not actually appear in this form in some important witnesses including the Aleppo Codex and MS Leningrad. 10 Sifri Devarim, piska 356, Finkelstein edition p. 423. For various sources offering this description and the differences between them, see S. Talmon, “Shelosha Sefarim Matz’u ba-Azara,” in: Y.M. Grintz and Y. Liever (eds.), Sefer Segal – Kovetz Mechkarim ba-Mikra, Jerusalem 5725, pp. 252-264.

11 2. In several places in rabbinic literature, mention is made of a special Sefer Torah belonging to R. Meir, which included at least seven divergences from the accepted text.11

For example, there is a different version of the verse:

.And the sons of Dan: Hushim 23 גכ בוּ ְ ֵנ י - ,ןָד ִשֻׁח .םי

Gen 46:23

“And the sons (benei) of Dan, Chushim” than the one that appears in the Masoretic text. Where the verse as it appears in the Masoretic text displays a lack of correlation between the plural form (benei – “sons of”) and the fact that only one son is named, a different, simpler version is cited as being present in R. Meir’s text: “The Torah of R. Meir was found to read, ‘and the son (ben) of Dan, Chushim.’”12

Another example concerns the verse in which Yosef declares,:

So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God; and 8 ח ,הָתַּﬠְו אֹל - םֶתַּא םֶתְּחַלְשׁ יִתֹא ,הָנֵּה ,יִכּ ,יִכּ ,הָנֵּה יִתֹא םֶתְּחַלְשׁ םֶתַּא He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his ;םיִהֱאָה יַו יִנֵמיִשְׂ בָאְל ,הֹעְרַפְל ןוֹדָאְלוּ לָכְל - .house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt ֵבּ וֹתי , מוּ שֹׁ ֵ ,ל ְ בּ ָ כ ל - ץֶרֶא .םִיָרְצִמ ץֶרֶא

Gen 45:8

11 Some of these variants appear to be “midrashic” in nature, since it is difficult to make sense of them on the plain level in the context of the verse. Especially well-known are two examples. One concerns the verse, “And God saw all that He had done, and behold, it was very good (tov me’od)” (Bereishit 1:31). In Bereishit Rabba (parasha 9,5, Theodor-Albeck edition p. 70) we find, “The Torah of R. Meir was found to read, instead of, ‘And behold it was very good (tov me’od)’ – ‘and behold it was good to die (tov mot).’” The second concerns the verse, “And the Lord God made for the man and for his wife coats of skins (‘or,’ written with the letter ayin), and He clothed them” (Bereishit 3:21). Bereishit Rabba (parasha 20,12, Theodor Albeck edition, p. 196) teaches, “The Torah of R. Meir was found to read, ‘coats of light’ (‘or,’ written with the letter alef).” In both of these cases the discrepancy in the text has a simple phonetic explanation but given the content R. Meir’s version seems to be aimed at conveying a certain homiletic message, rather than reflecting an actual textual version. Another variant with conceptual or homiletic significance concerns the national struggle against Rome: the verse in Yishayahu that starts with the words, “The burden of Duma…” (21:11) is substituted in R. Meir’s Torah with “the burden of Rome.” In this case, too, the substitution is easily explained in terms of the graphic similarity between the letters dalet and resh, but here again the orientation seems to be midrashic – i.e., conveying a homiletic message, rather than simply featuring a textual variant.

12 The commentators note the difficulty in the verse, and Ibn Ezra offers two possible explanations: either Dan had two sons, one of whom died, and therefore the verse mentions only Chushim, or the verse adopts in relation to Dan the same standard formula that appears for each of the other sons of Yaakov (“And the sons of …”) even though in this case there was only one son.

12 “[God] has made me (va-yesimeni) a father for Pharaoh” “The Torah of R. Meir was found to read: ‘[God] has made me a creditor (va-yasheni) as a father [to Pharaoh],’ as it is written,:

And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall 2 ב ,הֶזְו רַבְדּ הָטִּמְשַּׁה -- טוֹמָשׁ לָכּ - לַﬠַבּ לַﬠַבּ release that which he hath lent unto his neighbour; he shall הֵשַּׁמ ,וֹדָי רֶשֲׁא הֶשַּׁי :וּהֵﬠֵרְבּ ֹל א - שֹׂגִּי שֹׂגִּי not exact it of his neighbour and his brother; because the תֶא - וּהֵﬠֵר תֶאְו - ,ויִחָא יִכּ - אָרָק הָטִּמְשׁ הָטִּמְשׁ אָרָק .LORD'S release hath been proclaimed .הָוהיַל

Deut 15:2

‘which he lends (yasheh) to his neighbor’. 13 Regarding the latter example, the midrash notes that this is “one of the words written in the Torah that left Jerusalem with the captives and was taken to Rome, where it was hidden in the synagogue of Severus.”14 The midrash then continues directly with a list of all thirty instances where the text of this Sefer Torah differed from the accepted version,15 most of them minor variations.16 With the exception of these thirty instances, the text of the Torah taken to Rome was identical to that of the accepted text of the Sages.

Martin Levey writes:17

In the case of ink preparation and use, the Talmud has much to say. This is due, no doubt, to the fact that at a very early date, the Bible was put in writing in a scroll form. There is also evidence that other books were known, and that there were many Jewish writers in Biblical and Mishnaic times.

13 Bereishit Rabba 45, 8 Theodor-Albeck edition p. 209. 14 Two Roman emperors (Septimius and Alexander), who reigned during the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E. were called by the name Severus. The reference here is most likely to Severus Alexander (222-235), who was known for his positive relations with the Jews. 15 The list in the Albeck edition is somewhat corrupted, but with the aid of other manuscripts it is possible to arrive at the full list. Concerning manuscripts, see Talshir (above, n. 1), p. 40, n. 14. 16 Some of the differences include the versions unique to the Torah of R. Meir; others involve remnants of an ancient script in Bereishit 27:2]). A small number] מוי יתומ ,which no distinction is made between final letters and regular letters (for instance represent reasonable possible alternatives to the textual version with which we are familiar, such as the verse containing God’s statement about Sedom: “I shall go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it (ha-ke- tza’akatah)…” (Bereishit 18:21): the text in this Sefer Torah reads, “whether they have done”. 17 Some Black Inks in Early Mediaeval Jewish Literature Author(s): Martin Levey Source: Chymia , 1964, Vol. 9 (1964),

13 In the third century a.d., in the Persian schools of the Jews, the meaning of the word chalcanthum was not always known. The scholar, Samuel Yarchina'ah of Nehardea agreed with Pliny that kharta dusqafa, or kalkantos, is atramentum sutorium or shoemaker's black.

Gallnut and vitriol inks were not described in the Mishnah, which was canonized about 200 a.d., at the latest. It is believed that this type of ink came from Egypt to Palestine in the third century a.d.

14 The History of Ink

Ink drawing of Ganesha under an umbrella (early 19th century). Ink, called masi, an admixture of several chemical components, has been used in India since at least the 4th century BC. Many ancient cultures around the world have independently discovered and formulated inks for the purposes of writing and drawing. The knowledge of the inks, their recipes and the techniques for their production comes from archaeological analysis or from written text itself. The earliest inks from all civilizations are believed to have been made with lampblack, a kind of soot, as this would have been easily collected as a by-product of fire.

Ink was used in Ancient Egypt for writing and drawing on papyrus from at least the 26th century BC. Chinese inks may go back as far as three or maybe four millennia, to the Chinese Neolithic Period. These used plants, animal, and mineral inks based on such materials as graphite that were ground with water and applied with ink brushes. Direct evidence for the earliest Chinese inks, similar to modern inksticks, is around 256 BC in the end of the Warring States period and produced from soot and animal glue. The best inks for drawing or painting on paper or silk are produced from the resin of the pine tree. They must be between 50 and 100 years old. The Chinese inkstick is produced with a fish glue, whereas Japanese glue (膠 "nikawa") is from cow or stag.

India ink was first invented in China, though materials were often traded from India, hence the name. The traditional Chinese method of making the ink was to grind a mixture of hide

15 glue, carbon black, lampblack, and bone black pigment with a pestle and mortar, then pouring it into a ceramic dish to dry. To use the dry mixture, a wet brush would be applied until it reliquified.

The manufacture of India ink was well-established by the Cao Wei Dynasty (220–265 AD). Indian documents written in Kharosthi with ink have been unearthed in Chinese Turkestan. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in early South India. Several Buddhist and Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink.

The use of ink remained exclusively for artistic use for more than 35,000 years. Writing emerged in the Sumerian region of Mesopotamia around 3,200 BCE, and it was produced either by creating impressions in clay or through carving into other surfaces. The development of writing with ink took place around 2,500 BCE, at approximately the same time in both Egypt and China.

For their pigment, the inks used a type of carbon called lamp black, which is created by partially burning tar with a little vegetable oil. The pigment was suspended in gum or other glue, to ensure it adhered to the host surface. There was a strong need for the writing to endure, and the carbon ensured this. The advent of ink-based writing also went hand in hand with the use of the first paper in the form of papyrus, made from the pith of the papyrus plant, a type of sedge.

However, papyrus was fragile, it couldn’t be folded, and was susceptible to both dry and wet conditions.

So, parchment, made from animal skin, began to replace papyrus at the start of around the 1st century BCE. Just before this, India ink had been developed from earlier inks. This was composed of carbon black, lamp black, and charred bones (called bone black), combined together with animal glue to create a block, which would then be re-liquefied by the addition of water, usually via a brush. India ink was used in China from the 4th century BCE and was also the type of ink employed for writing the Dead Sea Scrolls, although the latter relied on red cinnabar (mercury ore) as its base rather than carbon.

Carbon-based inks such as India ink are pigmented, and they have great durability, so light and chemicals don't cause fading. However, they also require paper that’s absorbent, because they will flake off of non-absorbent surfaces such as parchment, and can also aggregate into flakes, which would make the ink inconsistent. This means they’re not ideal for every use or writing surface. As a result, around the 8th century, inks using chemical precipitation were developed, with the first being iron gall ink based on tannic acid and iron salt bound by resin. This could be used with a quill pen and parchment or vellum, making this the standard mode of writing from the 12th century to the 19th century.

16

A fragment of a third-century B.C. receipt from ancient Egypt. Credit...Ancient Ink Laboratory

Sharon J. Huntington18 describes these other historical inks:

About 1,600 years ago, a popular ink recipe was created. The recipe was used for centuries. Iron salts, such as ferrous sulfate (made by treating iron with sulfuric acid), were mixed with tannin from gallnuts (they grow on trees) and a thickener. When first put to paper, this ink is bluish-black. Over time it fades to a dull brown.

18 "Think ink!", Christian Science Monitor, September 21, 2004

17 Scribes in medieval Europe (about AD 800 to 1500) wrote principally on parchment or vellum. One 12th century ink recipe called for hawthorn branches to be cut in the spring and left to dry. Then the bark was pounded from the branches and soaked in water for eight days. The water was boiled until it thickened and turned black. Wine was added during boiling. The ink was poured into special bags and hung in the sun. Once dried, the mixture was mixed with wine and iron salt over a fire to make the final ink.[15] From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, iron gall ink was one of the most frequently made and used inks in Europe – so much so that it was often referred to as ‘common ink’. It was made in batches by hand until the 18th century, when it was produced on a commercial scale. The ubiquitous rusty browns (and paper damage) of manuscripts written in iron gall ink make it one of the most recognizable inks in the world. At its most basic recipe – the earliest of which is found in Pliny – iron gall ink is comprised of four components: gall nuts, iron sulfate, water and gum arabic.

Gall nuts form on oak trees as a defense against the irritant of hatching insects and are the source for the ink’s tannins – biomolecules used for tanning leather and dyeing textiles. The iron sulfate came directly from iron mining or was acquired as a by-product of alum manufacturing. The gum arabic served as the binding agent, making the ink more viscous, ensuring the pigment particles stayed properly suspended in the water, as well as binding the ink to its intended writing surface. Some iron gall recipes call for additional ingredients, like sugar or honey (plasticising agents), pomegranate rinds as another source of tannins, dyes or pigments to enhance color and preservatives like alcohol or vinegar to prolong the ink’s shelf life.

18

The Book of Kells (the four Gospels of the New Testament) is upheld as one of the finest manuscripts produced in early medieval Britain.

It was written in Ireland (and, possibly, Scotland) on 340 parchment leaves around AD 800. The neat biblical verses were penned in iron gall ink, with the distinctive rusty hue as a clear indication of the ink used, although many other ink colors are found in the book’s text.

While historically pervasive, iron gall ink is also inherently corrosive. Once put to paper, parchment or vellum it bites into and eats away at the surfaces – anything that the ink recorded is slowly eroding its own page away.

The permanence of iron gall ink to the historical record is undercut by the ink’s very chemistry. Our earliest use of ink was discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls which provided us the earliest evidence for the use of ink since the Geniza fragments, a hundred years earlier.

19

Nir El and Broshi19 have examined the ink from the Dead Sea Scrolls:

19 The Black Ink of the Qumran Scrolls Author(s): Yoram Nir-El and Magen Broshi Source: Dead Sea Discoveries , Jul., 1996, Vol. 3, No. 2

20

The Origin of Iron in the Specimens In all parchment and papyrus fragments, large quantities of iron were found. Since iron is not a constituent of the pigment in the black ink of the Qumran scrolls, its origin in the specimens had to be identified. The concentration of iron in animal hides/skins is extremely low; this element is not even listed in the ash composition (1% of the hide/ skin). Iron is a trace element in Dead Sea water and its concentration is very low-approximately 10 ig/L.16 Therefore, the high content of iron in the fragments cannot be due to the processing of hides/skins with Dead Sea salt. Our explanation for the presence of iron is based on the method used in antiquity for making parchment and papyrus. Before writing on them, these substrates were rubbed smooth with some abrasive mate- rial, such as pumice stone.'1 Pumice stone has a high content of iron, as verified by our EDXRF measurements. Very small grains of the stone were deposited during the filing of the parchment/papyrus and are probably the origin of iron in the fragments. Our explanation is supported by the detection of rubidium in parchment and papyrus fragments, an element also present in pumice stone but not in Dead Sea water.

To sum up, the tests conducted at Soreq Nuclear Research Centre, as well as tests performed formerly in other laboratories, show that the black pigment of the Qumran scrolls is carbonaceous material. These tests established that some metal elements detected in the ink are accidental and non- intentional.

The Qumran scrolls, as well as the manuscripts from the times of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, predate the use of ink spiked with metal additives

21 Lois Fruen20 writes:

Iron-gall ink was the most important ink in Western history. Leonardo da Vinci wrote his notes using iron-gall ink. Bach composed with it. Rembrandt and Van Gogh drew with it. The Constitution of the United States was drafted with it (Ink Corrosion). And, when the black ink on the Dead Sea Scrolls was analyzed using a cyclotron at the Davis campus of the University of California, it was found to be iron-gall ink (Nir-el 157) see above.

Some ancient scrolls were written in carbon ink. Carbon inks were the first writing inks. They were used as early as 2500 BC. These inks were made by burning oil or tar to produce soot, which contained about 80% carbon. The carbon was mixed with water and gum in a suspension. The problem with carbon ink was that it smudged (Eusman ). The red ink on the Dead Sea Scrolls is cinnabar (HgS) (Nir-el).

Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) wrote in his histories that galls were used to produce dyes. He described an experiment that he did using a piece of papyrus that he dipped in gallic acid. He noted that when he dripped a solution of iron salt onto the papyrus, it turned black (Eusman).

To make iron-gall ink, galls from oak trees were crushed to obtain gallotannic acid. The gallotanic acid was mixed with water. As seen in Figure 1, the water breaks the ester links of the gallotannic acid, forming gallic acid (Sjostrom).

Figure 1: Water breaks the ester links of the gallotannic acid, forming gallic acid

The gallic acid was then mixed with water and vitriol (iron (II) sulfate). Gum arabic from acacia trees was added as the suspension agent (Eusman). The result was iron-gall ink.

20https://web.archive.org/web/20160430005823/http://www.realscience.breckschool.org/upper/fruen/files/Enrichmentarticles/file s/IronGallInk/IronGallInk.html

22 . gallic acid + FeSO4 7H2O + water‡ iron-gall ink

When modern scientists used spectrometry or infrared spectrometry to analyze samples of iron- gall ink from various ancient scrolls, they determined that the ink samples were either ferric gallic acid complexes or iron pyrogallol complexes (Eusman).

The inks on parchment and paper can also be analyzed using photon induced X-ray emission (PIXE). PIXE can be used without sacrificing any material. The X-ray beam is aimed at the spot to be analyzed and excites the inner shell electrons. As the electrons return to ground state, they emit characteristic X-rays specific to the elements that are present. Iron-gall ink is identified by the high levels of iron (Lambert).

Iron-gall ink was very useful because it did not rub off documents. Unlike paper, parchment was not absorbent, so carbon-based ink easily rubbed away. Iron-gall ink ate into the parchment by reacting with collagen in the parchment. Iron-gall ink also reacts with cellulose in paper or papyrus, which poses a problem for modern conservators, especially when the ink has eaten all the way though a document. Some ancient documents written with iron-gall ink have holes where the ink was applied. Some of these texts can still be read by "reading the holes" while others have been destroyed (Nicholson).

Research has shown that the high acidity of some inks and excess iron (II) sulfate are the culprits. To conserve documents that were written with iron-gall ink, the documents must be deacidified and the excess iron (II) compound removed or converted to a less harmful compound (Banik).21

21 Banik, Gerhard. "Ink Corrosion." Stuttgart: Staatliche Akademie. 5 Nov. 1999.

Eusman, Elmer. "Iron Gall Ink." Paper Conservation Department. Rotterdam. 5 Nov. 1999. www.knaw.nl/ecpa/ink/html/make.html.

Koren, Zvi. "Historico–Chemical Analysis of Plant Dyestuff Used in Textiles from Ancient Israel." Archaeological Chemistry: Organic, Inorganic, and Biochemical. Washington DC: American Chemical Society, 1996.

"Ink Analysis By an Early Model Cyclotron." Time Magazine. 10 Mar. 1986.

"Ink Corrosion." Paper Conservation Department. Rotterdam. 5 Nov. 1999. www.knaw.nl/ecpa/ink/html/make.html.

Karmes, Cyntia (sic). "How to Make Iron-Gall Ink. Paper Conservation." Paper Conservation Department. Rotterdam. 5 Nov. 1999. www.knaw.nl/ecpa/ink/html/make.html.

Nir-el Y. and M. Broshi. "The Black Ink of the Dead Sea Scrolls." Dead Sea Discoveries. Mar. 1996: 157-167.

Sjostrom, Eero. Wood Chemistry: Fundamentals and Applications. Orlando: Academic Press, 1981.

23

Marie Flemay writes: Iron gall ink (also known as common ink, standard ink, oak gall ink or iron gall nut ink) is a purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts and tannic acids from vegetable sources. It was the standard ink formulation used in Europe for the fourteen-hundred-year period between the 5th and 19th centuries, remained in widespread use well into the 20th century, and is still sold today.

The ink was traditionally prepared by adding some iron(II) sulfate (FeSO4) to a solution of tannic acid, but any iron ion donor can be used. The gallotannic acid was usually extracted from oak galls or galls of other trees, hence the name. Fermentation or hydrolysis of the extract releases glucose and gallic acid, which yields a darker purple-black ink, due to the formation of iron gallate. The fermented extract was combined with the iron (II) sulfate. After filtering, the resulting pale- grey solution had a binder added to it (most commonly gum arabic) and was used to write on paper or parchment. A well-prepared ink would gradually darken to an intense purplish black. The resulting marks would adhere firmly to the parchment or vellum, and (unlike India ink or other formulas) could not be erased by rubbing or washing. The marks could only be erased by scraping a thin layer off the writing surface.22 The earliest recipes for oak gall ink come from Pliny the Elder, and are vague at best. Many famous and important manuscripts have been written using ferrous oak gall ink, including the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest, most complete Bible currently known to exist, thought to be written in the middle of the fourth century.23 Due to the ease of making iron gall ink and its quality of permanence and water resistance this ink became the favored one for scribes in the European corridor as well as around the Mediterranean Sea. Surviving manuscripts from the Middle Ages as well as the Renaissance bear this out as the

22 Flemay, Marie. "Iron Gall Ink". Traveling Scriptorium. Retrieved 2 May 2018.

23 Mazzarino, Sara. "Report on the different inks used in Codex Sinaiticus and assessment of their condition". Retrieved 16 March 2013.

24 vast majority are written using iron gall ink, the balance being written using lamp black or carbon black inks. Many drawings by Leonardo da Vinci were made with iron gall ink.24 Laws were enacted in Great Britain and France specifying the content of iron gall ink for all royal and legal records to ensure permanence in this time period as well. The popularity of iron gall ink traveled around the world during the colonization period and beyond.

Iron Gall Ink

MARIE FLEMAY ON INKS AND PIGMENTS25

Iron gall ink is one of the most frequently found inks in manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. With a color ranging from blue-black when freshly made to a rusty brown when degraded, it is omnipresent in libraries and archives, and was often referred to as “common ink”. Historically, iron gall was “homemade” until around the 18th century, when commercial production started.

Iron gall ink was not used exclusively for writing: several well-known artists used it to make exquisite drawings (Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Victor Hugo, to name a few). According to James, the first specific mention of drawing with iron gall ink was made in the late 17th century, but some authors believe that artists of the Early Renaissance were already using the ink. Unfortunately, with its inherent corrosive action on paper and parchment, the iron gall ink used in so many drawings and historical documents has been creating serious preservation challenges for many institutions around the world. A great deal of research has been done in the last 25 years and

24 White, Susan D. (2006). Draw Like Da Vinci. London: Cassell Illustrated, pp.18-19

25 https://travelingscriptorium.library.yale.edu/2013/03/21/iron-gall-ink/

25 a successful treatment using phytic acid was developed in the Netherlands in the 1990s. The treatment of iron gall ink still remains controversial, however, and research to better understand its chemistry and possible treatment is still ongoing. At its simplest, iron gall ink is made from four main ingredients:

§ gall nuts (source of tannins), § iron sulfate (source of iron), § water (solvent), § gum arabic (binder). § GALL NUTS

Gall nuts are spherical growths found on oak trees. Their development is triggered when insects puncture tree branches and twigs where they then deposit their eggs. When the larvae hatch, they feed on the tree and secrete an irritant. Galls are the plant’s defense mechanism. As they grow, they provide shelter and food to the larvae until they reach maturity and are able to chew their way out. According to Cardon, to preserve as much of the tannin as possible, galls were harvested preferably before the insect had become an adult and made its way out. At this stage the galls are referred to as ‘blue galls’. They are small, heavy, and dark in color. ‘White galls’, gathered just before or after the insect has escaped, are bigger, lighter in weight and color, and contain fewer tannins. The holes through which the insects escaped are generally clearly visible.

Gall nuts with escape holes.

26 When making iron gall ink, gall nuts are used as a source of tannin. Tannins are complex organic molecules known as polyphenols that can be extracted from various parts of plants such as bark, leaves, pods, fruits, and gall nuts. Tannins have been used for thousands of years in the tanning of leather and dyeing of textiles. Gall nuts were the main source of black dye for silk in the Mediterranean and in Europe for many centuries.

Daniels26 mentions that one of the traditional ways of classifying tannins is whether the color obtained after the addition of iron salts is blue/black or green/brown. ‘Iron-blueing’ or ‘hydrolysable’ tannins contain large amounts of gallotannins which, through acid hydrolysis, will give gallic acid. It is the reaction of iron sulfate with gallic acid that creates the iron-tannin complex

1. 26 CARDON, Dominique. Natural Dyes: Sources, Tradition, Technology and Science. 2007. London: Archetype Publications. 2. DANIELS, Vincent. “The Chemistry of Iron Gall Ink”. The Iron Gall Ink Meeting: 4th & 5th September 2000, the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne : postprints. Ed. A. Jean E. Brown. 2000. Newcastle upon Tyne: Conservation of Fine Art, University of Northumbria, 31-36. 3. DORNING, David. “Iron Gall Inks: Variations on a Theme that can be Both Ironic and Galling”. The Iron Gall Ink Meeting: 4th & 5th September 2000, the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne : postprints. Ed. A. Jean E. Brown. 2000. Newcastle upon Tyne: Conservation of Fine Art, University of Northumbria, 7-12. 4. JAMES, Carlo. “The Evolution of Iron Gall Ink and Its Aesthetical Consequences”. The Iron Gall Ink Meeting: 4th & 5th September 2000, the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne : postprints. Ed. A. Jean E. Brown. 2000. Newcastle upon Tyne: Conservation of Fine Art, University of Northumbria, 13-22. 5. KREKEL, Christoph. “Chemistry of Historical Iron Gall Inks”. International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners. 1999. 5: 54-58. 6. Merrifield, Mary P. Original Treatises, Dating from the XIIth to XVIIIth Centuries on the Arts of Painting, in Oil, Miniature, Mosaic, and on Glass; of Gilding, Dyeing, and the Preparation of Colours and Artificial Gems; Preceded by a General Introduction; with Translations, Prefaces, and Notes. 2 vols. London: J. Murray, 1849. 7. REISSLAND, Birgit. “Visible progress of paper degradation caused by iron gall inks”. The Iron Gall Ink Meeting: 4th & 5th September 2000, the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne : postprints. Ed. A. Jean E. Brown. 2000. Newcastle upon Tyne: Conservation of Fine Art, University of Northumbria, 67-72. 8. STIJNMAN, Ad. “Historical Iron-gall Ink Recipes. Art Technological Source Research for InkCor”. PapierRestaurierung. 2004. Vol. 5, No. 3: 14-17. 9. STRLIC, Matija, KOLAR, Jana. Iron gall inks: On manufacture, characterization, degradation and stabilization. 2006. Ljubljana: National University and Library. 10. The Ink Corrosion Website http://ink-corrosion.org/igi_index.html

27 responsible for the dark, gray/black color of iron gall ink. ‘Iron-greening’ tannins, also called ‘condensed’ tannins, polymerize and oxidize through acid hydrolysis to form brown or green compounds in combination with iron salts. Inks made from these tannins tend to be less stable, quickly fading to a faint brown or rusty color.

The extraction of tannins from gall nuts can be done in several ways: mixing, macerating, cooking, or fermenting. The amount of tannins extracted will vary according to the method used. It is generally thought that mixing with water will yield fewer tannins than macerating, macerating less than cooking, and cooking less than fermenting. It’s not unusual to have mold grow on the surface of a fermenting solution of gall nuts. This mold is said to promote the formation of gallic acid by releasing enzymes that encourage the hydrolysis of gallotannic acid into gallic acid. Using a slightly acidic solvent such as wine or beer is also said to enhance the production of gallic acid. Since the reaction of gallic acid with iron sulfate forms the black iron-tannin complex, the higher the amount of gallic acid, the better or more stable the ink will be because there will be more chances of gallic acid bonding with the iron (Dorning)

Two gall nut solutions left to macerate for 14 days. On the left, the gall nuts are in water and have developed mold at the surface. On the right, the gall nuts are soaking in white wine.

28 Many recipes call for the use of white wine, red wine, or beer as a solvent in place of (or in mixtures with) water. This recipe from the manuscripts of Jehan Le Bégue (1431) (Merrifield, 6, vol. 1, p.168) favors the use of wine over water to make a more stable ink:

47. To make good ink for writing, particularly for books.- Take 4 bottles of good wine, white or red, and 1 lb. of galls, slightly bruised, which must be put into the wine, and allowed to stand for 12 days, and be stirred every day with a stick. The twelfth day it must be strained through a strainer of fine linen, and must be poured into a clean jar, and put on the fire to get hot, until it almost boils. Then remove from the fire, and when it has cooled so as only to be tepid, put into it 4 oz. of gum-arabic, which must be very bright and clear, and stir it with a stick, then add ½ lb. Roman vitriol, and stir it continually with the stick, until all things are well incorporated together, and let it cool and keep for use. And note, that ink made with wine is good for writing books upon the sciences, because, when books are written with it, the letters do not fade, and can hardly be scraped out or discharged from parchment or paper. But if they are written with ink made with water, it is not so, for they can easily be scraped out, and it may happen that the letters written with it will fade.

4 bottles of wine, or water, or half of each. 1 pound of galls of xij. oz. to the pound.

4 oz. of gum Arabic. 6 oz. Roman vitriol.

And if you took equal parts of each, galls, gum, and vitriol, as much of one as of the other, by weight, it would still be good; as for instance, 6 oz. of each, would be sufficient for the said 4 lbs. of wine or water, or wine and water

mixed as before.

IRON SULFATE

Iron sulfate or ferrous sulfate (FeSO4•7H2O) is a metal salt that has been historically used as a mordant for textile and leather dyeing, and in the manufacture of mottled or tree calf during the 19th century. In literature and historical ink recipes it is often referred to as vitriol, green vitriol, copperas, green copperas, and Roman vitriol. The salt could be obtained from mines through various extraction techniques, by dissolving iron in sulfuric acid or as a by-product of alum manufacturing. Mined iron sulfate could contain a certain amount of impurities such as copper sulfate and zinc, while iron sulfate obtained from alum manufacturing could contain aluminum. Copper sulfate can be found as an ingredient in ink recipes either as an additive or a substitute for

29 iron sulfate. Copper sulfate was also known as blue vitriol or blue copperas. Because they shared similar names and were closely associated, iron and copper sulfate were often confused. Used alone, copper sulfate mixed with gallic acid will give a soluble brown complex (Daniels and Krekel)

GUM ARABIC

Lumps of gum arabic.

Gum arabic is a natural, water soluble gum that exudes from Acacia trees in Africa, India, and Australia. It has been used for hundreds of years as a binder in inks and paints, as well as a varnish for watercolors. It can be found as transparent lumps ranging in color from pale yellow to dark orange (almost brown). The lighter and clearer gum was generally favored, especially for painting. Once ground into a powder it has an off-white color.

30 Local and cheaper sources like cherry gum or (starting in the 19th century) dextrin were often used as substitutes. Gum arabic serves many purposes in an ink: it makes the ink more viscous, improving its flow from the pen; it keeps insoluble pigment particles in suspension; it helps bind the ink to the writing surface; and it gives the ink’s color more brilliance and depth.

Commonplace book, Late 17th Century, Osborn b115 (59r-58v) Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

. CHEMISTRY

As mentioned earlier, the reaction of gallic acid with iron sulfate forms an iron-tannin complex which gives iron gall ink its color (Dorning, 3). The reaction also produces sulfuric acid which remains in the ink.

FeSO4 + H2Tannin → FeTannin + H2SO4 iron sulfate acidic tannin ferric tannate sulfuric acid

31 As the freshly applied ink dries, it reacts with atmospheric oxygen and the color of the ink develops and becomes darker, more blue-black: the water-soluble, colorless iron (II) gallate is oxidized into the insoluble, blue-black iron (III) gallate. This reaction can also occur as the ink sits in its container before it is used.

Commonplace book, probably late 16th or 17th century, Osborn Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

32 A direction to make good inke. Take six ounces of galls, three ounces of gumme Arabeck, three ounces of green coppresse. Crack the galls grosly and put all these to two quartes of the best drink ready to be put up, as followeth. First put the galls into the drink in a glasse bottell, stop it close and let it stand in the sun 14 dayes, & shake the bottell twice ot thrice in each day. Then at the end of those dayes strayne out the galls & fling them away, & strayne out the drink & wash the glass cleane, & put in the drink agayne, & then put in your coppresse, and let it stand 14 dayes, & then put in you gumme, and put in two or three knives pointe full of sugar to keep it from hoaring . And put to it a little ising glasse

33