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Black and red inks in alphabetic writing

The black ink used for alphabetic writing (measured on all the selected pages) shows an elemental profile with iron as the main element and with variable amounts of zinc and manganese. This combination clearly indicates the use of an iron gall ink, a material of European origin often found in colonial Mesoamerican manuscripts. In some instances, gall ink was used to add small details to the pictorial imagery, such as on folio 63r, where it was detected on the tip of the spear of the young warrior on the left. Gall ink was also detected in the Spanish gloss of the year signs on folio 1v, previously thought to have been traced with lamp black.

The results obtained from the red color used in the Nahuatl gloss of the same calendric signs on page 1v were more unexpected, given that it was previously thought that it was composed of minium (Gómez Tejada 2012, 88). Elemental analysis combined with UV-Vis spectroscopy allowed for the straightforward identification of cinnabar (HgS). The use of cinnabar (also known as “vermillion”) as a colonial painting material is not unique since it was also used on the Codex Florentinus (Giorgi, Chelazzi, and Magaloni Kerpel 2014, 165) and the Beinecke Map (Magaloni Kerpel 2012, 83; Newman and Derrick 2012, 96); however, this is the first time that it has been proved that cinnabar was used as a writing material.