the wonderfully non-faded never-tested red ink - compare Alexandrinus, Bezae

Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
Joseph Dindinger (not aware of ANY Sinaiticus controversy) pointed out that the red ink surely did not look ancient (and the ms. as a whole as well.)

"it did NOT look to be 1600 years old"
https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php/threads/a.684ot

It also has annotations in red ink, which is my understanding fades a lot sooner than black ink. So it just looked to me like it was a lot newer than the middle of the 4th century.
Click to expand...
So on this thread we will place lots of information about the rubrication of Sinaiticus, where Song of Songs and Psalms are leaders of the pack.

The project (Facebook and PureBibleForum) began yesterday here:

"it did NOT look to be 1600 years old"
rubrication anticipation
https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php/threads/a.684/post-1447

And related.

Song of Songs - speakers identified in the text
https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php/threads/a.544

healthy skepticism of 1860s scholars about Song of Solomon - and the complete NT - "not a word is wanting"
https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php/threads/a.641

.

 
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Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
We will plan on many pics here:

English: Rubrication of the Codex Sinaiticus .
29 May 2009,
https://www.alamy.com/english-rubri...ticusprovenance-codex-ink-image184809132.html

Notice the beautiful, clear ink.

Here is one from Psalm 4:5, which is also used in the Mark Randall James paper:

Mark Randall James Paper.jpg

The Rubrication of the Psalms in Codex Sinaiticus (2015)
Mark Randall James
www.academia.edu

The Rubrication of the Psalms in Codex Sinaiticus

This article examines the use of red ink (‘rubrication’) in the Psalms of Codex Sinaiticus. Building on Dirk Jongkind’s important study, Scribal Habits of Codex Sinaiticus, I offer an overview of the ancient practice of rubrication, a careful
www.academia.edu

Which you can see directly on the CSP as well.
http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/manus...lioNo=1&lid=en&quireNo=59&side=r&zoomSlider=4

This pic seems to give a nice close-up of the wonderful ink condition:
https://www.alamy.com/english-rubri...ticusprovenance-codex-ink-image184809132.html

Sinaiticus close-up .jpg
 
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Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
Codex Alexandrinus

A Study of the Gospels in Codex Alexandrinus: Codicology, Palaeography, and Scribal Hands (2014)
William Andrew Smith
https://books.google.com/books?id=pWHPBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123
As mentioned in Chapter 2, the vermillion ink is likely to be red lead, which (with exposure) can corrode and darken to black—precisely what has occurred in Alexandrinus. p. 123
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Compared to the fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus is currently in much more fragile condition; the OT books of Alexandrinus have deteriorated more than those of the NT. A conservation effort was made by the British Library in late 2012 to address the state of the codex prior to preparing digital images of the manuscript.

The primary ink used in the manuscript is black or brown (atramentum; (Grk) that has faded to a yellowish brown color and in some places to a reddish hue. For rubrication a vermillion ink (minium, rubrica, (Grk) ), which has weathered the ages far better than the black/brown ink, was used. The vermillion ink has, in some areas, corroded and darkened to black, which suggests that the ink is red lead.22 In the section of thicker vellum described above, the black/brown ink is thin and yellow in hue and has adhered firmly to the leaves.23 Because the black ink has both faded to a brownish color and eaten through many of the pages of the manuscript, it is likely a mordantmetallic ink, prepared using an iron or copper metallic salt.24 This suggests all the more that the vellum was poorly prepared, since the mordant nature of such inks provides them with greater adherence to the writing surface. The yellow ink is perhaps of a different (noncorrosive) composition, though the thicker or better-prepared vellum may have mitigated any such corrosive effect. p. 39-40
Click to expand...

Here is the main place to see Alexandrinus pictures.
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_1_d_viii
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_1_d_viii_fs001r

This is the fifth page of the NT
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_1_d_viii_fs001r

Fifth page less staining JPG.jpg
A couple of pages later, some red ink.

about 7th page with red ink.jpg

A bit more.
British Library - zoomable
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/images/zoomify/codexalexzoom.html
 
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