A REVIEW ON METHODS OF ANALYSIS OF THE PIGMENTS AND INKS IN ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT

Abstract

Ink and pigment significantly impact historical context because of their extensive colour palette. In modern and contemporary times, the utilization of coloured minerals and other natural materials, as well as synthetic pigments and inks, contributed to creating an accessible colour palette. Therefore, this paper will review the current methods used to examine pigment and ink properties and characteristics. It is found that the instrumental analyses that have been used are spectroscopy and microscopic analysis through non-destructive and destructive approaches. The destructive analysis showed that a positive test that confirms the presence of an element is usually more reliable than a negative test that confirms its absence, while ink formulation and chemical composition are not evaluated using non-destructive ink analysis procedures. This study is crucial to identify the suitable analytical approaches that can be implemented in pigment and ink analysis on the illuminated manuscript through various case studies from other researchers' work experience.