Could a chemist reproduce inks of medieval quality, then apply them to vellum?

[conlangyalesbaby]

You’re way off the mark there.
See pages You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and 116v. It’s a typical iron gall ink. If it weren’t, you probably wouldn’t be able to see anything at all.
To really understand it, you need to know the whole history of the ink. I’m currently working on that.
There are three types of iron-based inks.
If the VM had been written in a non-iron-based ink, it would look something like this.
This is exactly the kind of abrasion Crowe was looking for, but didn’t find. Not every ink contains soot and gum arabic to make it appear a beautiful black. Once the gum arabic has become brittle with age, the writing crumbles too.
Is that clear?


Did you know that for 20,000 years, right back to ancient times, the recipe hasn’t really changed at all?
Saliva/water, fruit juice/sugar and charcoal.
When I’ve finished my work, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Stolfi mentions 100 years so forgery there is room for and that means the pages were not turned enough

And that is one of several wrong assumptions that everybody makes and have turned people away from the solution for the last 100 years.

All the best, --stolfi