The recipes

The most important part and focus of the manuscript are the recipes. With 132 different recipes, this manual contains knowledge to create many different colors and many shades of every different one.
The recipes themselves vary a lot in length and attention to detail. Some being just a few lines of explanation and others more than one full page of detailed description. Also, some are purely theoretical and others are related to orders and describe detailed quantities of materials.

Technical knowledge

Next to the dyestuff, dyeing recipes, even today need some so-called “mordants” to improve the quality and the stability of the dyes. With our modern knowledge, we understand the chemical properties that form stable bonds between textiles and dyes and we are this way able to utilize pure elements to achieve these results. The most important elements in this are the metal salts used (eg. Iron, aluminum, copper…) and the possibility to adapt pH of the solution.
Back in the day exact chemical knowledge was not as advanced, and the combination of intuition and empirical knowledge substituted it. Also, the materials used were dependent on what the dyer had available at the moment. Because of this, we have important recipe variations, and the utilized ingredients are often strange to our ears.

Figure 1

Geel verven mer curcuma

Dit is het selve geel gelijk hier

Neven, so hebbe dit in pis gesoken

En laten in de zon drogen, en is bij

Naer niet gesoljeert daerom is altijd

Beter eerst in de gal te sieden voor

alle andere coleuren

Dit coleur is niet als simpel

Proventie audt met wat aluyn

Dyeing yellow with turmeric

This is the same as on the side

first i soked it in piss

than i let it dry in the sun

but it is not completely prepared

so it is still better to boil it in

gallnuts for other colors

This color is nothing else than

provence wood with some alum

Figure 2

Pissblauw en pissgroen verven

Hebbe desen wol eerst met aluijn afgesoden,

dan in het selve water een wijnigh uijt de fles

die met indigo en vitriol geprepareert is voor

t’sacsis blauw in gedaen, en daer wat pis bij

gegoten in het sacsis blauw en den wol daer in

uijt en in gedaen is dit coleur geworden twelk

beter is (gekend) als het pisblauw

Dit is nu ook pisblauw

Schoonder blauw en isser niet

Dit groen is het selve

als boven als datter in de

selve sop wat curcuma

in gedaen is en laten eens

door koken.

To dye pissblue and pissgreen

First, i prepared this wool with alum
then in the same water, i added a little from the bottle
Which is prepared with indigo and vitriol to make
the Saxon blue, then I added some urine
to the saxon blue and afterward put the wool first
in then out then in again, so it became this color
which is better known as pissblue

This is now also pissblue

There is no more beautiful blue

This green is the same as before
except for the fact, I added some
turmeric to the solution and
let it cook for a while

Figure 3

Om Turksrood te verven op katoen

Wat regenwater… 3 vierendelen soda...

…Twee andere loogen van assen van hout en d’andere van kalk…

…stelt den katoen daar in, laat dan het selve koken…

…katoen uit en men spoelt het en laat dat drogen…

…wederom loog van soda in en men doet daar bij een vierendeel schapen stront… en men roert dat met een houten spade…

…men doet daar bij een maat olijf olie… en het katoen dan in wijken…

…dan doe met een vierendeel gemalen galnoten samen laten koken…

…neem dan een vierendeel aluin en zoveel loog van soda, en men doet den katoen daar in…

…men neemt vers water in de ketel, daar doet men in een vierendeel schapen bloed en een pont meekrap. Men doet dan het katoen in en doet dat koken…

…spoelt het dan en laat drogen…

…neem dan u loog van assen of witte Marseille zeep en laat het katoen koken, alsdan wederom spoelen...

To dye turkish red on cotton

Take some rain water... 3 quarters of soda...
...two more baths, one with wood ashes and the
other with chalk...
...add your cotton in there and let it cook...
...take the cotton out and let it dry...
...again add it to a bath of soda in which you added
a quarter of goat excrement... stir it well
with a wooden shovel...
...then add a unit of olive oil... soak the cotton in it...
...then add a quarter of ground gallnuts
and cook it together...
...take then a quarter of alum and this much
solution of soda, then add the cotton...
...put fresh water in your kettle, add a quarter
of goat blood in it and a pound of madder.
Add the cotton and let it cook...
...rinse it and let it dry...
...take either from your solution with ashes
or white Marseille soap and cook it together,
rinse it again...

Historical reconstructions

Having the recipes translated and interpreted, the next step would be the reproduction of some of them. We had to exclude the ones utilizing dangerous materials, like arsenic and other dangerous metals, and ones utilizing not hygienic materials, like excrement. Still, even those recipes cound be adapted based on chemical adaptations of the recipes, altough it would then not be possible to call it an historic reconstruction.

Gloeiend rood verven / To dye glowing red

Figure 4

Figure 5

Reconstruction of an indigo vat

Figure 6

References:
Figure 1-2-3-4: Recipes from the Antwerp manuscript
Figure 5-6: Reconstruction of recipes (figure 4) and indigo vat. Within the conservation-restoration course in the University of Antwerp

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