the Ink of ancient Writings. 
length of time they had been kept : and perhaps more gum 
was ufed in them, or poffibly they were walked over with fome 
kind of varnifh, though not fuch as gave any glofs. 
One of the fpecimens lent me by Mr. Astle proved very 
different from the reft. It was faid to be a MS. of the fifteenth 
century; and the letters were thofe of a full ennrofiin^ hand, 
angular, without any fine ifrokes, broad, and very black. On 
this none of the above-mentioned re-agents produced an}- con- 
fiderable effect ; molt of them rather feemed to make the let- 
ters blacker, probably by cleaning the furface ; and the acids, 
after having been rubbed ffrongly upon the letters, did not 
If like any deeper tinge with the phlogifticated alkali. Nothing- 
had a fenfible effeft toward obliterating thefe letters but what 
took off part of the furface of the vellum ; when fmall rolls, as 
of a dirty matter, were to be perceived. It is therefore un- 
queftionable, that no iron was ufed in this ink ; and from 
its refiftance to the chemical lolvents, as well as a certain 
clotted appearance in the letters when examined clofely, and 
in fome places a flight degree of glofs, 1 have little doubt but 
they were formed with a compofition of a black footy or car- 
bonaceous powder and oil, probably fomething like our prefent 
Printer’s ink, and am not without fufpicion that they were 
actually printed *. 
Whilff I was confidering of the experiments to be made, in 
order to afeertain the compofition of ancient inks, it occurred 
to me, that perhaps one of the beft methods of refforing legi- 
bility to decayed writing might be, to join phlogifficated alkali 
with the remaining calx of iron ; becaufe, as the quantity of pre- 
* A fubfequent examination of a larger portion of this fuppofed MS. has 
/hewn, that it is really part of a very ancient printed book. 
cipitate 
