Tea at Trianon: Rare Medieval Blue Ink

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Rare Medieval Blue Ink

From Ancient Origins:

Portuguese researchers believe that they have identified the long-lost process and plant that provided a unique purple-blue pigment in the Middle Ages . This was used to color many things including cloths, but it was particularly used in illuminated manuscripts, which were masterpieces of the medieval world. The experts were able to recreate the medieval blue ink based on a book written in an extinct language.

The pigment was known as folium and it was famous for its hue and its long-lasting properties. Science News reports that “long-lasting blues are relatively rare among dyes,” and this made folium so prized in the Middle Ages. This blue hue is not like the indigo still widely in use, or those pigments produced from some types of flowers. Atlas Obscura reports that this distinctive blue dye was “responsible for coloring everything from Bible scenes to, later, the rind of a popular Dutch cheese.” (Read more.)