From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V5 #75 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Monday, March 12 2001 Volume 05 : Number 075 ======================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with unsubscribe scribes-digets in the body of the message. Leave the subject line blank. Do not include any additional text. [scribes]: Anyone hear from Master Balderick lately? Re: [scribes]: My Day at the Newberry Library ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 22:24:34 +0000 From: Catie Helm-Clark Subject: [scribes]: Anyone hear from Master Balderick lately? While I'm still subscribed here for a while, I thought I would inquire about Master Balderick. He's the gentleman who makes vellum up in Ealdomere. I've sent him a couple of emails recently and have not gotten any reply. At this point I am less concerned about getting some vellum from him than I am about just finding out he's still alive and alright. It's not like him not to answer his email. So, has anyone heard from him lately? I've been a bit worried, to tell the truth. ttfn, Therasia von Tux ___________________________________________ Reward doubled in Abernathy murder case http://www.onewest.net/~no1home/index.html =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 22:46:28 +0000 From: Catie Helm-Clark Subject: Re: [scribes]: My Day at the Newberry Library > Yesterday, I visited the Newberry Library (their first annual Associates Day) > and found out two rather interesting items. > > The first was (and I bet RanthulfR already knew this and told me about it, but > it just didn't sink into my brain) that often white lead turned dark gray or > even black on manuscript pages. So, even some stuff that many of us were saying > was just tarnished silver leaf might very well have actually been white lead If I'm not mistaken, Mayer discusses this problem in _The Artist's Handbook_ (1977, Viking Press). The three volume collection _Artists' Pigments_ (put out jointly by the National Gallery in London and the Smithsonian) also mentions this in greater detail. The cause has to do with the chemistry of white lead and sulfur. White lead is a lead oxycarbonate, made by the slow oxidation of lead acetate. It's chemical structure is complex, and for an inorganic pigment, a bit wierd. If the lead white is exposed to sulfur, the sulfur can react to form PbS, which is the black mineral galena. The sulfur can come from three different sources: from other adjacent pigments containing sulfur (orpiment, realgar, vermillion, stibium...), from the sulfur inherent in glaire or egg tempura as aglutenants, or from SO2, a major constituent of air pollution. Vermillion has the same problem, though its cause is unknown. Vermillion is the hexagonally symmetric form of HgS. For reasons still not clear, it can spontaneously rearrange itself into the cubic form of HgS which is black. The Newberry is a cool place. I used to have a reader card there, and went and looked at the medieval manuscripts whenever I could (long ago in the mists of time when I was an undergrad at Northwestern) Unlike a lot of other places I've tried infiltrating to look at medieval stuff (eg, the Huntington and Yale), the Newberry is very friendly to non-professional, non-academic seekers after knowledge. It sounds like that haven't changed, which makes me happy. ttfn, Therasia =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V5 #75 ****************************