Investigation of pigments in medieval manuscripts by micro Raman spectroscopy and total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

Analytical pigment investigation can reveal important information for art-h istorians. The use of two micro-analytical techniques, micro Raman-spectros copy and total reflection X-ray fluorescence, is shown to be very successfu l. These techniques give complementary information: Raman spectroscopy allo ws the identification of the different materials the pigment grains consist of, and total reflection X-ray fluorescence gives the average elemental co mposition of the sample. The latter is helpful to distinguish between the different palettes used by different artists or workshops. Samples can be taken with cotton wool swab s (Q-tips), which cause no visible alteration to the artefact. Such a sampl e allows both Raman-spectroscopy and total reflection X-ray fluorescence to be applied using less than 1 mu g of material. This approach is illustrate d with the pigment investigation of seven late-medieval Mercatellis manuscr ipts, kept in the Ghent University Library.