Identification of pigments and gemstones on the Tours Gospel: the early 9th century Carolingian palette

Abstract

AbstractTwelve gemstones set into the cover of an elaborately decorated leather‐bound manuscript, the Tours Gospel, ‘Evangelia Quatuor’, held in the British Library (Add. MS. 11848), were identified by Raman microscopy to be composed of silica, amethyst, emerald (probable, 3), iron garnet (3) and sapphire (3), one not being identified. The brilliant illuminations within the manuscript (ca 825 AD) were established by Raman studies at 215 locations on 13 folios to have been painted with a restricted palette, which included carbon black, indigo, lead white, minium, orpiment and vermilion, together with certain mixtures of the above pigments. Gold was also used but, notably, not lazurite. The palette was compared with those found for the earlier Lindisfarne Gospels (ca 715 AD), part of a later Anglo‐Saxon manuscript (ca 920 AD), a Paris Bible (1267 AD) and certain Gutenberg Bibles (1455 AD). Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.