Analyzing inks of the early modern time by comparing their features: assessment of the CodikHum research program

Abstract

The analysis of old inks, carried on heritage documents, is today mainly carried out using spectrometers and seeks to identify metallic and mineral elements (X-ray fluorescence spectrometer) or organic elements (infrared spectrometry); The aim of these analyses is most often to compare two documents to attest to the relationship of the inks. The CodikHum program adopts a slightly different perspective. On the one hand, it was a question of verifying whether the analysis protocol could be completed by including other devices and on the other hand to focus the effort on a double corpus: dated and localized manuscripts on one side; literary corpus on the other. Our contribution mainly takes stock of the analysis methods.