’Litteras arena conspergere’. Uncovering blotting sands on the Portuguese Inquisition documents

• Autor(a) principal: Nunes, Margarida
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Wanzeller Martins, Gláucia, Sarraguça, Jorge, Olival, Fernanda, Moita, Patrícia, Mitchell, Scott G., Claro, Ana, Ferreira, Teresa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/35490; https://doi.org/Nunes, Margarida; Wanzeller Martins, G; Sarraguça, J; Olival, Fernanda; Moita, P.; Mitchell, Scott G., Claro, Ana; Ferreira,Teresa, «’Litteras arena conspergere’. Uncovering blotting sands on the Portuguese Inquisition documents», Journal of Cultural Heritage, Volume 61, 2023, pp. 211-216, ISSN 1296-2074, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2023.04.003. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1296207423000493>; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2023.04.003
• topic: Materialidade da Escrita; Ciências do Património; Inquisição Portuguesa; Areias; Secagem da escrita; Mineralogia

Historical and archival research focused on the Portuguese Inquisition documents (1551–1800) uncovered the use of arena known as blotting sands, a writing accessory used to hasten ink drying. We present in this work the first systematic study combining image analysis, SEM/EDS and µ-Raman techniques, statistics and chemometrics to characterise the blotting sands used by the Portuguese Inquisition and hypothesise their provenance. Iron-titanium and iron oxide minerals categorised as texturally mature sands are the dominant species, consistent with sediment extraction from fluvial or beach contexts and later processed. Chemometrics unveiled time period trends by clustering the samples according to morphology and composition data. This work constitutes a groundbreaking step towards uncovering this intricate writing tool.