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Manuscripts in the Making

New Content ItemThis collection of articles published in Heritage Science derives largely from the posters presented at the ‘Manuscripts in the Making: Art and Science’ conference held in Cambridge, UK in December 2016. The conference accompanied the Fitzwilliam Museum’s bicentenary exhibition COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts. 

This interdisciplinary conference brought together manuscript scholars, heritage scientists and conservators and provided a public platform for the integration of recent advances in the art historical and technical analyses of illuminated manuscripts with research in social and intellectual history.  While Western illuminated manuscripts from the 6th to the 16th centuries formed a major focus of discussion, the conference also included papers on Byzantine, Islamic and Pre-Columbian material.

A separate publication in two volumes by Harvey Miller publishers, co-edited by Dr Stella Panayotova and Dr Paola Ricciardi, includes papers based on the oral presentations from the conference.

Editor: Dr Paola Ricciardi


  2. This paper presents the results of a study of pigment-binder systems painted on parchment, both in the form of reference samples prepared in the laboratory, and of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscri...

    Authors: Luca Nodari and Paola Ricciardi
    Citation: Heritage Science 2019 7:7
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Iron-gall inks have been described as complexes of iron ions with gallic or tannic acids, available in gall extracts. To assess this working hypothesis, we have prepared medieval inks using ingredients and met...

    Authors: Rafael Javier Díaz Hidalgo, Ricardo Córdoba, Paula Nabais, Valéria Silva, Maria J. Melo, Fernando Pina, Natércia Teixeira and Victor Freitas
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:63
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. The last 50 years have seen an impressive development of mathematical methods for the analysis and processing of digital images, mostly in the context of photography, biomedical imaging and various forms of en...

    Authors: Luca Calatroni, Marie d’Autume, Rob Hocking, Stella Panayotova, Simone Parisotto, Paola Ricciardi and Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:56
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. Over 50 works on paper from Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Central Asia dated from the 13th to 19th centuries were examined and analyzed at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. Forty-six of these w...

    Authors: Penley Knipe, Katherine Eremin, Marc Walton, Agnese Babini and Georgina Rayner
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:55
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. The Emerson-White Hours (MS Typ 443–443.1, Houghton Library, Harvard University) is a book of hours and missal produced in Valenciennes, Bruges, and Ghent in the late 1470s or early 1480s. There are seven full...

    Authors: Debora D. Mayer, Hope Mayo, Erin Mysak, Theresa J. Smith and Katherine Eremin
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:48
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  7. The book on how to make all the colour paints for illuminating books invites readers to step inside the workshop of a fifteenth century illuminator in Portugal. This illuminator was the carrier of a tradition on ...

    Authors: Maria J. Melo, Rita Castro, Paula Nabais and Tatiana Vitorino
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:44
    Content type: Review Published on:

  8. The purpose of this study was to determine whether workable flesh-toned paints can be made from colourants from aphid insects and ivy gum using medieval gum and scale insect recipes. The processes of extractin...

    Authors: Nabil Ali
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:38
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Comparing information from the ancient texts about the illumination of the manuscripts to the analysis of the components used to create colour in illuminations sheds interesting light. Our research team studie...

    Authors: Charlotte Denoël, Patricia Roger Puyo, Anne-Marie Brunet and Nathalie Poulain Siloe
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:28
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  10. Information on materials and procedures of painters of the past can be gained from the latest examinations of a painting and its materials and from documentary sources, the change of meaning of which is of pri...

    Authors: Guido Frison and Giulia Brun
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:24
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. Two precious Carolingian manuscripts kept in the library of Kremsmuenster Abbey in Upper Austria were subject of investigation. The well-known Codices Millenarius Maior (Inv. No. CC Cim 1, Fig. 1a) and Millenariu...

    Authors: Bernadette Frühmann, Federica Cappa, Wilfried Vetter, Manfred Schreiner and Father Petrus
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:10
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Heritage Science 2018 6:34

  12. This paper presents the work done as part of a master dissertation on Conservation and Restoration at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Nova University of Lisbon. The “Cofre n.º 31” is a French fifteenth...

    Authors: Isamara Carvalho, Conceição Casanova, Rita Araújo and Ana Lemos
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:9
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  13. The aim of this research was to use non-invasive scientific analysis to uncover evidence of the planning process and relationship between pigments used in text copying and artwork production in the Oppenheimer...

    Authors: Suzanne Wijsman, Sarah Neate, Sotiria Kogou and Haida Liang
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:15
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  14. The lack of comprehensive studies on silver paints in manuscripts is a handicap to new stabilization strategies and treatments. This work develops and tests a methodological approach for the study of the degra...

    Authors: Rita Araújo, Paula Nabais, Isabel Pombo Cardoso, Conceição Casanova, Ana Lemos and Maria J. Melo
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:8
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. The research aims to investigate the nature of the materials used in the decoration of the cover of a sunk-panel Commissione Dogale, a Venetian manuscript of 1582. The analysed volume Ms. It. VII, 1869 (= 8134) b...

    Authors: Miriam Rampazzo and Michele Di Foggia
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:14
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. Microspectrofluorimetry offers high sensitivity, selectivity, fast data acquisition, good spatial resolution (down to 2 μm), and the possibility of in-depth profiling. It has proved to be a powerful analytical...

    Authors: Paula Nabais, Maria J. Melo, João A. Lopes, Tatiana Vitorino, Artur Neves and Rita Castro
    Citation: Heritage Science 2018 6:13
    Content type: Research article Published on: