The main feature of Vienna Dioskurides and Vienna Genesis palettes is their richness, exemplified by the simultaneous presence of gold and ultramarine blue in Vienna Dioskurides cinnabar is also present. Indeed these illuminated manuscripts are, to the authors’ knowledge, among the oldest ever being analysed, so that the colourants found in them can be considered among the oldest evidences of their use. medieval treatises) than of analytical evidences. The analytical study was performed to have a better knowledge on the colourants used by ancient miniature painters, a subject known more on the basis of traditional sources (i.e. Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optic fibres and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry were used to characterise the palette of these early Middle Ages manuscripts. Two Byzantine VI century manuscripts known as Vienna Dioskurides and Vienna Genesis, held in the Austrian National Library at Vienna, were analysed with in situ non-invasive techniques. Moreover, analytical results from a non-invasive spectroscopic approach have been definitely confirmed by micro-invasive surface-enhanced Raman analysis performed on micro samples of purple parchment taken from two 6th century codices.
In most of the instances the use of less expensive dyes such as folium or orchil is suggested. Results have been discussed within the frame of previous information, thus covering a vast majority of the purple codices presently identified. A large number of purple codices has been considered in this work to elucidate the nature of the purple colour. Recent literature reports the analysis carried out on some purple codices, suggesting that Tyrian purple has not, if ever, been used in their making. The traditional knowledge concerning the use of Tyrian purple in Late Antique and Medieval purple codices-those precious biblical texts written with noble metal inks on parchment dyed or painted with purple colourants-is here updated in view of new analytical evidence.
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