2020 Essays

What is Azur in Ms. Fr. 640?

Garris, Carl

Throughout Ms. Fr. 640, the author-practitioner uses azur to refer to blue pigments. It is not clear if this means azur in a general sense of “blue color” or as a reference to specific pigments. Analyzing historical uses of the term azur can give insight into the linguistic and artistic landscape in which the author-practitioner operated. The four most likely pigments to which azur could refer are azurite, lapis lazuli, smalt, and verditer (synthetic azurite). In tabulating textual occurrences of azur to isolate patterns of use, azur, azur desmail, cendres dazur, and azur dacre emerge as significant. Through reconstruction of entries involving azur (fol. 11r), we found qualitative data to support a tentative historical identification of cendres dazur with verditer. Although azur desmail would seem to denote smalt, we as yet lack experimental justification for this conclusion. The reconstructions carried out for this essay demonstrate the complexity of blue pigment making and application during the Renaissance, and allow us to draw very tentative conclusions as to the identity of some of the manuscript’s terms for blue pigments.