Many of the world’s most famous and influential artists and musicians used iron gall ink – the sketches and drafts have become as important as finished works of art themselves, making even preliminary manuscripts as fragile as they are treasured.
The earliest music manuscripts, even considering their parchment/vellum substrate versus the later use of paper, often demonstrate similar deterioration to their later counterparts. Julia Craig-McFeely, a research fellow from the University of Oxford, offers a fascinating look into the conservation and forensic restoration of medieval music manuscripts in the Bodlean Library. The iron gall ink’s acidity has caused extensive issues, primarily the show-through and burn-through of the ink, making the notes difficult and sometimes nearly impossible to read. Careful, deliberate treatment and digital examination resulted in an excellent restoration of nearly-lost information.
More modern music manuscripts suffer greatly from the acidity of both the iron gall ink and the paper; the Library of Congress has treated both Bach and Beethoven manuscripts, both of which have been de-acidified and rehoused.
Conservators at the Morgan Library have treated Bach’s autographed Derr Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt (1791) and stabilized the document.
Rembrandt von Rijn’s many sketches contain iron gall ink – and the resulting conservation challenges due to differing ink recipes.
Layers of ink, chalk, and paint are examined by using iron gall ink’s reaction to infrared reflectography (IRR) at the Royal Collection Trust on Leonardo da Vinci’s manuscript drawings.
Da Vinci’s Leda and the Swan has also undergone extensive examination and conservation treatment as a direct result of the iron gall ink used in its creation; the investigation reveals how inexpert treatment can contribute to deterioration, and how much a document’s ink can change over time.