Historia De Atramentis

[Morbus Curiositas]

De Atramentis (company) history.

Dear FPN Friends,

 

 

As some of you , who read my topic "A Declaration of Love to De Atramentis, may know, I am a great fan of De Atramentis. Ifell in love with De Atramentis when I bought their Document ink and I am so happy now that I can use my beloved Fountain Pens for official documents now . If you want to know more about why I love De Atramentis i suggest you read the topic mentioned above.

 

On the website www.dietintenmanufaktur.de a lot of information on the history of inks is published. The research on this history was made by Dr. Franz Josef Jansen the owner of De Atramentis. There really is a lot of interesting ink history on the website dating back till before christianity... Very Very interesting but to bad, only in German

 

If Dr. Jansen allows me I will translate these ink history articles in the near future.

The following text was taken and adapted from the website www.dietintenmanufaktur.de The text was only in German but I tried to translate it as correctly as possible...

 

HISTORIA DE ATRAMENTIS

In the middles ages it were mainly monks who specialised themselves in the developement of inks.

Above that ink recipes found in the archives of of pharmacists, dating back to the 16th century.These pharmacists occupied themselves, beside medications, with questions of nature and physics.

In the year 1735 the German pharmacist Franz Esser of Monchen Glattbach (German town) produce several inks, some of them based on recipes in the book De Atramentis (a.d. 1660). Beside that he developed several new inks, which recipes he then carefully archived.

Franz Esser's son Josef inheritated both the recipes and the love for inks. After the death of Franz Esser the book "De Atramentis" was inheritated generation after generation till this finally fell in the hands of Dr. Franz-Josef Janssen the owner of "Die Tintenmanufaktur aka De Atramentis"

In 1991, after extensive laboratory research, the first hand made De Atramentis inks where produced and in 1995 a completely new line of inks, the Genuss-Tinten (Pleasure Inks or Joy Inks) where introduced.

Today De Atramentis produces 200 (TWOHUNDRED!!!) inks in 55 (FIFTYFIVE!!!) colours.

 

Sofar the text which you can find (in German) on the above mentioned website the text beneath is of my origin

 

The ingenuity of Dr Franz Josef Jansen, combined with his unlimited creativity and love for inks results in thee appearance of various new inks most frequently.

His latest idea: The inkline "Women Power 2014" (Calamity Jane, Jeanne D'Arc) Although I am not a great fan of scented inks, I must mention that a vast array of these are produced... AND...

 

Since I am a bookworm and read a lot, I must soon buy the ink called Bookworm. This inks smells like old books :-) My lord! Since I am also love wine whisky and cognac I must also buy the inks made with Barolo or Cabernet Sauvignon.They MUST be a joy (as long as I do not drink them :-)

 

Thank you very much for your Interest. Hopefully more ancient ink history will be translated here soon.

 

Kindest regards

 

Peter Vlutters

[migo984]

Hi Peter

 

Your articles are very interesting. Are you able to tell us more about the original "recipe" book De Atramentis (1660) that you mention? Was it written by the mediaeval monks or collated by the later 16th/17thC pharmacists? Or does it have a single author?

 

I haven't tried the scented inks yet. Not sure they're quite my thing

 

Marie

[Morbus Curiositas]

Hi Peter

 

Your articles are very interesting. Are you able to tell us more about the original "recipe" book De Atramentis (1660) that you mention? Was it written by the mediaeval monks or collated by the later 16th/17thC pharmacists? Or does it have a single author?

 

I haven't tried the scented inks yet. Not sure they're quite my thing

 

Marie

I will have to find out but you'll "here" from me soon dear Migo

[Morbus Curiositas]

sorry hear

[wnclee]

Thank you so much for this fascinating bit of history...I could have read this all day if there were more to read. I will try to find more history of De Atramentis on the 'net...I am very passionate about history and believe that it is the key to our future. You said something about a BOOKWORM ink? Brown? I have been in the market for a brown that reflects very old documents w/ the pale, faded brown color. I did go to the De Atramentis site and downloaded their color chart, but could not find this particular ink. If you hear or see anymore about the Bookworm ink, please let me know. In the mean time, I will look-thru their current colors...Thank you again for the lovely bit of historia...Regards, LeRoy

[Bo Bo Olson]

55 ink colors only....of the "200" some are scented others have names that have no color meaning...Poe, Holms Harry Potter and so on.

I have a local labeled ink Lizalotta von der Pfalz....a heroine of the Pfalz...very intelligent. The French destroyed the Pfalz fighting over her inheritance in she was married to the brother of the King of France....it is a very nice Royal Blue.

I have a Mississippi Brown with a picture of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer on it....don't see any name on it of what real brown it is, that can be ordered as a regular color.

I would with my luck, order a Poe or a Sherlock and end up with the same color I have.

So I don't.

[NubeAzul]

I can't wait to try the De Atramentis inks. I'm very curious about them.

[Morbus Curiositas]

Hi Peter

 

Your articles are very interesting. Are you able to tell us more about the original "recipe" book De Atramentis (1660) that you mention? Was it written by the mediaeval monks or collated by the later 16th/17thC pharmacists? Or does it have a single author?

 

I haven't tried the scented inks yet. Not sure they're quite my thing

 

Marie

 

Dear Marie

 

The Book De Atramentis was writen by Petrus Maria Caneparius an Italian Docter of Mdicine of Medicine from Venice who was famous for his knowledge on alchemy PMC was the first man of science who focussed hisattention on Inks.

 

In 1660 he published the book "Of Atramentis Cujuscunque Generis (London 1660).

 

For now this all the Information I could retrieve on the author.

 

The good thing is you can download the book free of charge from gogle books. The downside is that it is isn Latin. Although I am fluent in Dutch, English, German and speak a (very very) little French I do not have any knowledge of Latin...

 

So I am sorry for not being able to help you there.

 

Regards Peter

[Morbus Curiositas]

Thank you so much for this fascinating bit of history...I could have read this all day if there were more to read. I will try to find more history of De Atramentis on the 'net...I am very passionate about history and believe that it is the key to our future. You said something about a BOOKWORM ink? Brown? I have been in the market for a brown that reflects very old documents w/ the pale, faded brown color. I did go to the De Atramentis site and downloaded their color chart, but could not find this particular ink. If you hear or see anymore about the Bookworm ink, please let me know. In the mean time, I will look-thru their current colors...Thank you again for the lovely bit of historia...Regards, LeRoy

 

Dear Wnclee

 

Thanks for the reply. Cool I love history too. But I also love reading on humanity biology foreign cultures and geography. Hence my nickname MORBUS CURIOSITAS... A friend of mine who is a psychologist once called me an Ocean of Knowledge of one meter depth. He thinks that's very cool because I always have an interesting topic to talk about... and of course one could always dive deeper in to a subject....

I also like reading on various religions, although I am not religious. But then again religion is severely intertwined with history and as I am interested in humanity too I find that very interesting too.

 

What are your favourite topics in history (besides inks and Fountain Pens???)

 

If Dr Jansen of De Atramentis Inks allows me I will publish a lot more on the history of inks. (He has a lot of information in German on his website that I want to translate.)

 

On The brown Inks. I Have De Atramentis Khaki. It is a sand/gold brown ink... I love the colour though it is not as water resistant as the Jane Austen Green ink that I published a review on. (label lovely liquids)

 

I will of course do a review on the khaki soon (and check the water resistance again). May be this helps you on the brown inks... The green Jane Austen ink looks very "ancient to me" and Dr Jansen created a lot of lovely liquids (inks ) so you might want to check out his website

 

www.de-atramentis.com

 

It is in english and with 55 colours and 200 inks, iIgues you must be able to find something there...

 

Good Luck and hope to see you next time...

 

Regards

 

Peter