Raman analysis of iron gall inks on parchment

For centuries, iron gall inks were the most commonly used black inks in the Western world. Many documents, manuscripts and artworks are now suffering varying degrees of degradation due to the corrosive nature and colour instability of the ink. Raman microspectroscopy has been used to analyze historic iron gall inks in situ on parchments, iron gall inks prepared following traditional recipes, separate ink components and various combinations of components. FT-Raman spectroscopy was also applied to the latter samples. This research investigates the optimization of the technique and some problems encountered in the collection of Raman spectra for iron gall inks. Preliminary results from sample analysis are presented.