On the Path of Ioannes Rhosos’ Quill
Investigation of the Inks Used by the 15th Century Greek Calligrapher by Means of Reflectographic and Spectroscopic Analytical Methods
2023–2025
RFK08
Ioannes Rhosos (Ἰωάννης Ῥῶσος) was one of the most prominent Greek calligraphers of the 15th century C. E. He was born in the Greek island of Creta, and he was professionally active for around forty years (1455-1498) in several Italian cities, like Rome, Milan, or Venice. Employed by several notable commissioners, such as cardinal Bessarion, Rhosos copied a diverse array of texts, among which works of eminent ancient Greek authors, like Homer or Aristotle.
In terms of provenance indicators, the manuscript production of Rhosos can be divided in a) the ones that are accompanied by a colophon stating his name, date, and city of production and in some cases the name of the commissioner(s), and b) the ones without a colophon, attributed to him based on compelling paleographical evidence.
In this context, the objectives of the research project are the following:
- Analysis and determination of the composition of the black ink(s) and colorants as well as the writing supports used by Rhosos.
- Investigation of the potential correlation between specific ink types, cities, and time periods in the case of manuscripts bearing a colophon.
- Analysis and comparison of the inks of the manuscripts lacking a colophon with the inks of the dated and localized ones with the aim of identifying their place of production.
- Compilation of a database with the results of the analysis.
The material analysis for this project is performed using non-invasive and non-destructive analytical techniques, such as Ultraviolet (UV) and near-infrared (NIR) reflectography, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, Visible (vis) spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy.
People
Project lead: Katerina Grigoriadou