I’m making a new batch of ink for the Midwinter A&S entry. It is an oak gall ink recipe by Giovambattista Palatino (1515-1575, Italy) from Scribes and Sources by A.S. Osley, pg. 92-93.

The batch was started on Sunday. I cracked 1 1/2 ounces of oak galls and added them to 16 ounces of distilled water (substitute for rain water). Recipe calls for allowing them to “soak in the sun for a day or two.” Due to the inclement weather (massive, traffic stopping, school closing, low temperatures in the teens & twenties, highs below freezing ice storm), the ink was put in a glass canning jar in the window of the house that receives the most sun. The jar was left uncovered.

[The recipe called for steeping the galls “in half a flask of wine or, better still, of rainwater”. Image searches of period manuscripts depicted flasks about the size of a modern circular canteen. Search on modern canteens gave sizes of 32 – 85 ounces, with typical size of 32-45 ounces. As I do not need that much ink, I used the 32 ounce guestimate and cut the recipe in 1/2.]

Tuesday night, 1 ounce of copperas was added and the mixture was stirred with a fig stick.

I have made my first batch of ink! It is based on the recipe of Vespasiano Amphiareo, a 16th century priest as published in the book “Scribes and Sources Handbook of the Chancery Hand in the Sixteenth Century” by A.S. Osley which was my anniversary gift from Lorenzo.

The recipe calls for 30 ounces of strong white wine, 3 ounces of Istrian galls – broken not ground, 12 ounces of copperas (ferrous sulfate), and 1 ounce of gum-arabic, solid form. I ended up quartering the recipe due to the limited amount of ferrous sulfate I had. It came in a 100 g bottle which is only 3.5 ounces. I started this project on the 19th of December by putting the broken oak galls in the wine and letting it set for 12 days.

Tonight, I strained the liquid through a piece of linen and added the copperas. I ended up putting in all 3.5 ounces so it may end up a bit to the sludgy side, we’ll see. I forgot to order gum-arabic so I did a quick run by Michael’s for the liquid version. I ended up using 2 ounces of that. The residue on the inside of the jar has a dark purple hue to it.

The ink is supposed to sit for another 15 to 20 days to be at its “best and blackest”. I don’t have that much patience – the initial test shows that it is going to be very, very black. It is much thinner than the Higgins Black Magic but it does work its own special magic. The test letters I did went on as an almost transparent gray and *poof* before my very eyes, it immediately started to blacken.

It looks like it made at least 10 ounces of ink. On the bright side, I have enough ink to last a year or so. On the down side, I have enough ink to last for a year. (I’m already ready to make some more!)