Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
Although all dyestuffs of low viscosity lend themselves to pen drawing, the various inks are most often employed. The manufacture of gallnut ink had been known from the medieval scriptoria (copying rooms set apart for scribes in monasteries). An extract of gallnuts mixed with iron vitriol and thickened with gum-arabic solution produces a writing fluid that comes from the pen black, with a...
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