Traces of Ink

Experiences of Philology and Replication

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Traces of Ink. Experiences of Philology and Replication is a collection of original papers exploring the textual and material aspects of inks and ink-making in a number of premodern cultures (Babylonia, the Graeco-Roman world, the Syriac milieu and the Arabo-Islamic tradition). The volume proposes a fresh and interdisciplinary approach to the study of technical traditions, in which new results can be achieved thanks to the close collaboration between philologists and scientists. Replication represents a crucial meeting point between these two parties: a properly edited text informs the experts in the laboratory who, in turn, may shed light on many aspects of the text by recreating the material reality behind it.

Contributors are: Miriam Blanco Cesteros, Michele Cammarosano, Claudia Colini, Vincenzo Damiani, Sara Fani, Matteo Martelli, Ira Rabin, Lucia Raggetti, and Katja Weirauch.
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Lucia Raggetti is an Assistant Professor for the History of Ancient Sciences at the University of Bologna. After receiving her PhD in Arabo-Islamic studies in Naples, she held a DAAD Fellowship in Hamburg and then worked as research assistant at the Freie Unversität Berlin, in the research group on Wissensgeschichte (History of Knowledge). Her main research interests are Arabic philology and the history of natural sciences and medicine in the Arabo-Islamic milieu, on which she has published a variety of articles. She is author of ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī’s Book on the Useful Properties of Animal Parts: Edition, Translation and Study of a Fluid Tradition (de Gruyter, 2018).
"[...] one of the merits of the book probably lies in addressing the complexity of a subfield of book studies that was traditionally overlooked.[...] The second merit of this work is the attempt to propose an interdisciplinary approach to face these challenges and do justice to the complexity that is emerging."
- Luca Berardi, Università di Napoli "L'Orientale", in: EURASIAN Studies, 2021, Vol. 19: pp. 303–06.
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors

Introduction
Lucia Raggetti

1 WoW! Writing on Wax in Ancient Mesopotamia and Today: Questions and Results from an Interdisciplinary Project
Katja Weirauch and Michele Cammarosano

2 Written in Blood? Decoding Some Red Inks of the Greek Magical Papyri
Miriam Blanco Cesteros

3 Ink in Herculaneum: A Survey of Recent Perspectives
Vincenzo Damiani

4 Material Studies of Historic Inks: Transition from Carbon to Iron-Gall Inks
Ira Rabin

5 ‘Alchemical’ Inks in the Syriac Tradition
Matteo Martelli

6 The Literary Dimension and Life of Arabic Treatises on Ink Making
Sara Fani

7 “I tried it and it is really good” Replicating Recipes of Arabic Black Inks
Claudia Colini

8 Ordinary Inks and Incredible Tricks in al-ʿIrāqī’s ʿUyūn al-ḥaqāʾiq
Lucia Raggetti

Index of Manuscripts
Index of Authors
Index of Sources
Index of Technical Terms
Historians of premodern science, philologists working on the Graeco-Roman, Syriac, and Arabic tradition, along with chemists and natural scientists, in particular those cooperating with humanists.
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