Andrew Beeby, 'Shining Light on Medieval Manuscripts'

In this free Stories on Skins event, Prof. Andrew Beeby from Durham University looks at how artists and scribes create the vibrant images and material found in ancient texts. Andrew will describe and demonstrate the novel approach he and Team-Pigment use to identify materials and methods used in manuscripts produced in Britain between the 7th and 15th centuries.

Identifying these manuscripts’ colourful pigments and binders remains a significant challenge for historians. Spectroscopy - the science of shining light onto the page to try and identify the materials is one solution - but not always practical because valuable books and artefacts would need to be moved to a science laboratory, which introduces risks insurance costs.

A group of chemists, historians, and conservation scientists created Team-Pigment 10 years ago. The team developed mobile instruments to analyse manuscripts on site and has examined more than 350 significant manuscripts and documents across the UK, including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Hereford Mappa mundi. These studies reveal trends in the materials artists used, with these changes mapped onto to societal upheavals, such as the arrival of the Vikings and the Norman Conquest.