To make a fume black called sable.
Take a clean Latin basin, and hold a burning torch under it, until the bottom be black: and then take of that black, and temper it with glair, or with gum water, and so work with it.
To make an excellent black like velvet.
Take hart's horn, and burn it to coal on a colliers hearth, then make a fine powder thereof, and grind it on a painters stone, with the gall of a neat. Then put it in a shell to dry in a shadowy place. And when you will occupy the same, grind part thereof again with the glair, or with gum water, and work it forth.
To make a black color, or an ink of a good perfection, wherewith you may write with a pen or brush.
Take a pound and a half of rain water, with three ounces of the weightiest [oak] galls you can get. Bruise them in small pieces and pour them into the said water, and let it stand two days in the sun. Then put to it two ounces of green copperas, or else Roman vitriol, which is best, well colored and beaten small; and stir all these together with a stick of hard wood, and let it stand again two days more in the sun, putting to one ounce of gum Arabic, that is clear and bright, and beaten to a powder, and one ounce of the peels of pomegranates, and then boil all a little on a slow fire. That done, strain it, and keep it in a vessel of lead or glass, and it will be very black and perfect good ink. And if you find it thick, and that it be not flowing enough, put to it a little clear lye, which will make it liquid and thin. And if it be too clear, add to it a little gum Arabic. And to have your ink continue long, and not to {hore}, put therein bay salt. Note that the galls must be small curled and (illegible) within, if they be good. The good vitriol is always within, of a color like the element. The best gum is clear and brittle, that in stamping it becomes powder easily, without cleaving together.
Thus it is taught the way how to temper gold, silver and colors to limn, or to write withal upon vellum, parchment, or paper. That is to say, vermillion, turnsole, sinoper, and saffron with good glair. Size with glair chastised with a portion of water, azure, bice, green bice, red lead, roset, smalt, black lead, brown, ochre, orpiment, massicot, and indigo with gum water, verdigris with vinegar, verijuice, or with the piss of a young child, ceruse and white lead, with clear water, or with water lightly gummed, Brazil, and fume black with glair or gum water, which you think best for your purpose.
Also there is another way which is used among the excellent sort of painters, that is, to grind and temper all colors for limning (saving such as white) first with the gall of a Neat, and then let dry, and after when you will work them, take part thereof, and grind it again with glair or with gum water, as the color requires, and so work it forth. It is said that water kills and darkens the brightness of most colors that be tempered therewith. But this gall preserves the brightness, and makes them more lively to behold, which thing experience will teach you more perfectly.
Note that all colors to limn or write withal should never be tempered with any kind of oil, for oils serve most aptly for to temper colors for to lay upon stone, timber, iron, lead, copper, and suchlike. And oil of linseed, which is called flax seed, and oil of walnuts are most used, and be most best of all other oils for the same purpose.
Also all colors to limn or write withal when they be tempered, would be put in shells, in vessels of stone, lead, or glass, and kept under the ground in some cellar, or in some moist or shadowy place, for drying over fast: and the elder they be the better they be, if they be kept covered from filth and dirt. And note that there is great regard to be had to the well grinding and tempering of the colors, and to the placing of them upon the work.
The manner how to flourish or diaper with a brush over silver or gold.
If you will diaper over gold, take yellow ochre, and therewith draw over your gold with a brush what you will.
If you will diaper upon silver, take ceruse with a brush and draw or flourish what you will over your silver.
If you will diaper with gold or silver upon colors, take the juice of garlic , with a brush draw over the colors what you will. Then take and lay the gold upon it and press it down lightly with a hare's tale and let it dry a half a day or more. Then rub off the gold which cleaves not to the garlic.
The way how to make sundry kinds of colors by tempering and mingling of colors together.
*Purple, or violet colors for arms*
If you will temper azure with turnsole, and grind them together on a painters stone with gum water or glair, you shall make thereof a perfect purple or violet color. And the like color you may make with good red roset, if it be mingled with azure, and tempered with gum water in manner aforesaid.
*Sanguine or murry color for arms*
If you will put to a good quantity of sinoper, a little portion of black, and grind them together with glair, you shall make thereof a sanguine or a murry color.
*Orange tawny for arms*
If you will mingle a bright red with a bright yellow, and grind then together with glair, you shall have thereof an orange tawny.
*Lion tawny*
If you mingle red lead and massicot together, you shall have a thereof a lion tawny.
*Incarnation and fleshly color*
If you will make incarnations or visages, or a fleshly color for images, first lay on the white, and {enew} it with vermillion, or else take two parts of vermillion and one of ceruse, and mingle them together, and so lay it on your work, and eneewe it if you will, when it is dry with good vermillion.
*Peach color*
Also if you mingle Vermillion with ceruse, by discretion you may make thereof a peach color.
*Sky color*
Also by mingling vermillion and azure together, by discretion you will make thereof a sky color.
*Blood red*
If you will make a blood red, take of the best sinoper, and sadd it at the sides with brown, or vermillion, or with black.
*Lincoln green*
If you mingle good green and saffron together, by discretion you shall have thereof a perfect Lincoln green.
*Popinjay green*
If you mix azure and massicot together, you shall have thereof a perfect popinjay green.
*Motley green*
If you mingle red with green, you shall make thereof a motley green.
*Black vesture*
If you will make a black vesture, take and lay first a {champe} of light black mingled with white lead and sadded with good black.
*Marble or ash color*
If you will mingle black with a portion of white, you may make thereof a marble, or an ash color at your discretion.
*Russet color*
If you will mingle a little portion of white with a good quantity of red, you may make thereof a russet, or a sad brown, at your discretion.
Thus by mingling of colors, you may make them of sundry colors, and by proof you may come to the perfect knowledge, how to make them on the best manner.
Note furthermore that there is a certain coloring which is called varnish that is more noble than all other colors. And so much the more excellent that it is set above all colors. And as the day becomes more light and brighter by the shining of the sun so all colors that are varnished do show forth a better gloss or luster, and become more brighter by the shining of the same. And it is made in manner and form following.
To make a kind of coloring called varnish wherewith you may varnish gold, silver, or any other color or paintings, be it upon vellum, paper, timber, stone, lead, copper, glass, etcetera.
Take {bengelwyn--gum bengal?} and bray it well betwixt two papers, then put in a vial and pour upon it good acquavitae that it be above the bengelwyn three or four fingers, and let it steep a day or two. Then put to it for half a vial of such acquavitae, five or six chives of saffron slenderly stamped. This done, strain it and with brush varnish therewith anything gilded which will become bright and shining drying itself immediately, and so will continue the brightness many years. But if you will varnish on silver, then take the {almon} of bengelwyn , that is to say the white that is found in the middle of bengelwyne, and dress it with aquavitae in the aforesaid manner, leaving out the saffron. And the said varnish made with bengelwyne and aquavitae only is very good to varnish all things as well painted as not painted, for it makes tables and coffers of walnut and {hebeny} to glitter if it be laid upon them and all other like things, as works of iron, copper or tin, gilded or not gilded, for it makes bright, preserves, aids the color, and dries incontinent without taking any dust or filth, you may make it clean with a linen cloth, or with wiping the work with a foretail the which is better.
To make varnish another way for the purposes aforesaid.
Take two ounces of hard [gum] mastic and stamp it and put in into a little new pot, and so melt it on a soft fire, this done, put to it one ounce of the oil of a fir tree, and so let them boil a little evermore stirring them together, but let it boil almost nothing, for if it boil too much the varnish will be too clammy, and to know when it is boiled enough, put into it a hen's feather, and if it burn by and by, it is a sign that it is perfect. Then take it from the fire, and put it into a stone pot, and keep it well from dust: and when you will occupy it, take so much thereof as will serve your {tourne--turn, i.e., purpose?}, and heat it a little at the fire, then spread it upon your work with a brush as thin as you may, and it shall have a very fair gloss or luster, and it dry incontinent if you shall set it in the sun.
To make colors of all kinds of metals.
Take a bead of chrystal or a paragon stone and beat each of them in a brazen mortar to fine powder, then grind them dry each by himself on a painters stone until the powder be very fine and small, then grind them again on the same stone each by himself with good glair and lay some one on the work with a pen or a brush, and when it is well dried, then rub it over with gold, or with any other metal, and you shall have the same color that the metal is of.
To make letters the color of gold without gold.
Take one ounce of orpiment and one ounce of fine chrystal and beat each of them by himself to powder in a brazen mortar. Then grind them together on a painter s stone, then it is perfect to write with.
To make letters the color of silver without silver.
Take an ounce of tin, two ounces of quicksilver, and melt them together, then grind it well on a painters stone with gum water, and write with it.
To make white letters on a black field.
Take the yolk of a new laid egg and grind it upon a painters stone with fair water, so as you may well write with it out of a pen, and when you have so done, you may draw or write with a pen great or small letter upon paper or parchment, and when they be dry, then may you with ink black over the letters and paper so much as you shall think good. And when the black is through dry then may you with a white woolen cloth or a knife rub off all the said letters written with the yolk of the egg, and then the letters underneath will appear all white, because they were preserved with the said liquor. So you shall have fair white letters in a black field.
To make staunch grain, or a powder to amend the parchment and receive ink.
Take two parts rosen and one part alum, and beat each of them by himself in a brazen mortar all to powder, and put the same powders together in a fine linen cloth and rub your vellum, parchment, or paper therewith when you begin to write. And when the writing is dry, you may rub it over again with a white woolen cloth, and the letters will be never the worse, but more fair and bright to see.
To renew old and worn letters.
Take of the best galls you can get and bruise grossly then lay them to steep one day in good white wine. This done distill them with the wine, and with the distilled water that comes of them, you shall wet handsomely the old letters with a little cotton or a small brush, and they will show fresh and new again in such wise as you may read them.
To take grease out of parchment or paper.
Take sheep's burrs and burn them to powder and lay the said powder on both sides the parchment or paper between two paper borders and press them by the space of two days or more, and it will dry and soak out all the grease.
To make red and green sealing wax.
Melt a pound of wax and two ounces of turpentine together, and when they be well molten, take them from the fire and put to them an ounce of vermillion while it is lukewarm, and stir it well together in the cooling, and then make up in rolls, and in like manner that you make green ware by putting verdigris into it. Note if you will take five parts of rosen and one part of turpentine, adding to it vermillion, as is aforesaid it makes the better ware.
A pretty device to take out the true form and proportion of any letter, knot, flower, image or other work. Be it printed, drawn in pen or brush upon paper or parchment without raising, blotting, or hurting the right pattern or picture itself.
Take oil or other liquors that make smoke and burn them in a lamp, then hold over the lamp a sheet of clean paper, and black as much of the same {lyghtiys} as will receive the full proportion of the work that you do mean to take out, that done lay the blackened paper under the back side of the work, the blackened side upward, laying a thin white paper between the work and it: and with a small pencil made of hard wood or of bone, you shall draw lightly over the letters, knot, or work which you desire to take out, pressing it softly. Thus doing you shall see the very form and proportion of the same work remaining on the thin white paper. Then with a small pen and ink, you may trace and draw over the work remaining on the white paper, that done, the ink will set out the very print and form of the work (as far as you touched the same with your pencil) in every proportion. You may also for the same purpose (if need be) black over your paper with the {leye} of a candle or of a {lynke}, or of a new torch or such like which is a very ready way and perfect.
Another pretty device to take out the true form and proportion of any flower, image, or suchlike.
Take a clean and thin lantern horn, and lay it upon the letter, image, or other work that you will take out, and it will appear through the horn, so as you may draw with a small pen upon the horn all along the proportion of the work at your own pleasure, even as you lust. And when you have drawn it all out, then let it dry upon the horn in the sun, and when it is thoroughly dry, then breath upon it twice or thrice, and then lay it down upon your book. And then press it down (the letters being next the paper) with a linen cloth, and the same letters or work shall remain upon the paper which you did draw upon the horn, then draw it fair again with the black ink.
Here have I taught you (besides the tempering of gold, of silver, and of colors) divers things, very meet and necessary to be known to painters and scriveners. And now will I rehearse briefly all that I have written before touching limning. First draw your work with a pencil of black lead, and then with a pen and ink. Then lay your size for your gold and silver. Then engross them with a sharp knife, then wet them over lightly with your brush, then being dry burnish it with a tooth. Then wet the size again lightly. Then touch your gold and lay thereon. Then press it lightly with a hare s tail, then let it dry, then burnish it with a tooth, then rub it with a white woolen cloth or a hare s foot until all go off, but that which cleaves unto the size. Then lay on the colors: first your false colors and after your sad, then {purfle} them about the sides with black ink, then may you diaper them over with white color if you will, then varnish them over with good old glair, and then you have done all that belongs to limning. Finished Anno Domini 1573.
-------------------------------------Notes----------------------------------------------------------
[1] ornamental border design
[2] proper
[3] "Black Lead" is graphite. In most period instructions and discussions of art, the word "pencil" refers to a brush. In order to avoid confusion with the modern definition of pencil , I have transcripted the word "brush" for pencil except in those cases where a hard stick of some sort is plainly ment. Graphite was in use for lining and drawing by the eleventh century, and by 1573, graphite chunks, sharpened and wrapped in string, were commonly in use for drawing in England.
[4] in this way. "Wise" is used to mean procedure .
[5] The meaning here is "make smooth"; in the modern era, we would sand the dried size in order to make it satin smooth.
[6] "Withal," in period, is a synonym for "therewith." "Temper" is "mix ," "blend ," "modify," et cetera, used to indicate the blending of a pigment with a binding agent in most cases.
[7] Ultramarine and azurite. Ultramarine is the blue most prized by period painters, a color very difficult to obtain and the most expensive pigment in the period palette. Azurite is a mineral that produced a similar color, but which can not be as finely ground. Green bice, mentioned later in the text, is the mineral malachite.
[8] Ground cobalt glass. When used as a pigment, it makes a color somewhat similar to ultramarine, but it is greyish and not as attractive as ultramarine or azurite.
[9] These are both earth colors, possibly the umbers, which come into use in late period.
[10] i.e., a brass mortar.
[11] Any of various domestic bovines; modernly, ox gall solution.
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