early uses of cochineal insects
Perhaps you knew this and know of other instances, but I wanted to share in case it is new to you. My son is currently part of a project digitizing an early French manuscript of "recipes" from the 1500's. Today, he is in a lab at college making one of these recipes with his boss and team on the project. They have obtained a bag full of cochineal insects and are making a red pigment using the original recipe from the manuscript. Not only do I find this wonderfully, nerdy, and cool, I learned something new and I hope you do too.
Here is the iNat taxon page for cochineal scale insects and it describes the uses of this bug in making pigment: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/202091-Dactylopius
My son sent me a short video from the lab showing how the pigment (in liquid form) was hot pink and then turned a lighter bubblegum color as he added an alum solution to the base. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the process from him as they finish it up.
As of this moment, I cannot remember the details of the French manuscript, but will add that once I hear back. Enjoy!
Edit: manuscript dates from 1500's (corrected above), and it is "Making and Knowing", for more details check out: edition640.makingandknowing.org
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I love that they are doing this -- digging into history and making it hands-on.
I see yarny white scale insects in my mind's eye whenever someone pulls out Campari or Aperol. I try to bite my tongue (not a party favor telling people they're drinking insect juice).
What are they making, recipe-wise, besides the pigment? And what is your son studying? This is fantastic.
Thank you, Tracy. I didn't know that about Campari/Aperol either...not sure I'll drink that anytime soon :)
My son is actually a computer science major, hence, his job on digitizing the manuscript. Having said that, he has been lucky enough to have the opportunity to be in the lab with the graduate student(s) running this project. I can't recall which other "recipes" they have made. I'll report back when I learn more
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