What is the easiest, historical way to gild manuscripts/paintings/caligraphy?

This year I'm teaching medieval history, and I'd like to have my students make their own medieval books (making paper, binding them, covering them, illuminating them and maybe even decorating them).

I really want the kids to make their own illuminated letter/illustration with egg tempera, and I think it would be super cool if they could add some gilding. But, I'm getting really confused about how to do that. I see lots of sets for gold leaf gilding (like this one from BLICK), but when I asked if they could be used on egg tempera, I was told,

"The adhesive and sealer in the Mona Lisa Composition Gold Leaf Kit are water-based synthetic products. When applied, they introduce an acrylic/polymer layer onto the surface of your work, which is not usually compatible with egg tempera paintings. Because of this, the manufacturer recommends testing this on a sample of a fully cured egg tempera painting before applying it to a finished artwork."

Well, that won't work. I'm assuming most of these kits, then, probably won't work. They seem largely to be used for gilding objects, like mirror frames and chairs.

Looking into actual historical methods, I see a lot of mentions of gilding on top of gesso. This gives a nice raised finish, but it sounds really finicky. I don't want to deal with that level of chaos and potential for failure!

Can I just apply gold leaf with just gum arabic or gelatin/hide glue?

I also see that "Gold pigment, liquid gold, and shell gold[6] are the simplest methods of illumination, and represent the earliest occurrence of gold in manuscripts.[7] Gum, glair, or size provide suitable gold-grain binders. A small brush applies the mixture—technically comparable with watercolor painting. Although this method works well on rough vellum, burnished grains produce dull illumination.[8] Shell gold, acceptable for lettering or small accents, is not recommended for major work." (according to Natural Pigments' website).

Are those harder or easier to apply? I'm struggling to find much info on this subject.

Doing some searching, I found this write up from the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism):

The products recommended for use on SCA scrolls, on the grounds of authenticity and durability, are gold gouache, powdered or shell gold, and gold leaf.
There are several varieties of metallic gouache available. For my money, Pelikan Rich Gold is best. Windsor & Newton is rather lifeless and difficult to apply evenly. Pelikan Pale Gold is a bit anaemic, and Pelikan Dark Gold is too coppery in tone. This is only a personal recommendation, please use whatever you like best. The paint should be diluted to a creamy consistency, and stirred constantly to keep the gold from settling out. For the best results, paint the area to be covered with a thin wash, and while this is still wet, flood on a sizeable amount of gouache. The surface tension of the water will distribute the gold evenly, but you might have to tease it carefully into tight corners. When completely dry, polish it with a dog-tooth burnisher, using a circular motion and very gentle pressure. This will smooth down the gouache and give it a nice sheen.
Powdered gold is sold in small quantities, and must be combined with gum arabic and diluted with distilled water before use. It can also be bought ready combined in small dried tablets, which is called shell gold. Powdered / shell gold is applied with a brush like ordinary paint, and when dry has a finely grained, quite dull finish. It can be brightened up quite a lot with burnishing, but is can never quite equal the brilliance of leaf.

Since well applied gold gouache looks very like shell gold (at a fraction of the cost and bother), I tend to stick to that for scrolls, especially for illuminating AA blanks.

But, that doesn't really help with figuring out how medieval people gilded without gold-leaf. Did they use gold goauche?

Looking on Natural Pigment's site, they sell Gold Shell...which costs $128.00 for 0.3 grams. That's too much! But, it also explains that shell gold is just gold dust in gum arabic. Which is a lot like gouache (gouache is watercolor with chalk/calcium carbonate added).

So, buying "gold" gouache might be a reasonable way for kids to historically gild their manuscripts, especially since it seems that gold leaf wasn't used before the 12th century.

Also, if you can attach gold dust to paper with just gum arabic, couldn't you attach gold leaf the same way?

There is an episode of Time Team where the put gold in a manuscript the authentic way.  I cannot remember the episode but most of them are free on yt.

Something in my head says gold looks better when glued onto red.  So paint all the gold places red so you know where to put it.

Digging a little deeper, this site (Arte Illuminandi) says:

For gold powder binding, it is better to use fish glue or glue made from gelatin. Gum Arabic dulls the gold powder.

I also found this fun (and slightly related) tidbit:

The origin of gum Arabic in the Middle Ages was not always clear. Much of what passed under the name gum arabic came from apricot – cherry – or plum trees and was certainly not from ‘Arabia’. Understandably, however, people also used the lesser quality cherry gum because, after all, it was available nearby. Apricot, plum and cherry trees grew in many places.

I've been meaning to use cherry sap gum to make paint, just to see how "inferior" it is. I still haven't gotten around to it, and I won't be using it to do gilding. But, I found it interesting that people did use it in the past!

He also lists some medieval recipes for making gum arabic for gold leaf and for paint. I'm pasting them here so I can find them later!

Gum solution: Recipe for laying gold leaf :

“Take white clean gum Arabic and break it into small pieces or grind it and put it in a glazed dish. And pour enough water over it so that it comes to two fingers deep and let it stand a day and a night and then put it in the hot ash for a while to dissolve and test it just as you tested the “planeerwater’ (2*). And when it is well tempered, such that it is not too strong or too weak, strain it through a cloth and keep it in a bottle and use it.”

From: “De Coloribus Faciendis ” by Jean le Bègue. ( 3*)

Gum solution for the preparation of paint:

“When mixing colors for painting in books, make a binder of the brightest gum arabic and water, as before, and mix it with all colors except green and ceruse (lead white), minium (red lead), and carmine. Salt green is unusable in a book. Spanish green should be made with wine, and if you want to make it darker, add a little of the juice of sword grass, or cabbage, or leeks. You should mix minium and ceruse, and carmine, with egg white”.

r ransom wrote:There is an episode of Time Team where the put gold in a manuscript the authentic way.  I cannot remember the episode but most of them are free on yt.

Something in my head says gold looks better when glued onto red.  So paint all the gold places red so you know where to put it.

I watched a video about the red underlaying, too. It helps the gold look more rich. This should be timestamped to when they explain about why they used a red ocher background:



I'm pretty sure there's an episode of BBC's Tudor Farm that does gilding. I'm pretty sure it's Ruth Goodman's husband that does the illuminating of a manuscript.

EDIT: Nope. There is an illuminated manuscript, but it isn't gilded:

Here's a video on making shell gold from gold leaf:

She also shows how to paint with the hand-made shell gold:



Her website also shows painting with mica, but it really doesn't look as nice as the real gold.

There are few things you can do. One of the bigger issues is if you want the manuscripts to be able to be rolled. If you are willing to keep them flat, you can fairly easily gild.
As you've already noted, a red background shows off the gold. You could also use a dark yellow ground. I haven't use egg tempura, but you may improve your chances by burnishing it a bit before adding some adhesive, to reduce the chance of it not sticking. Do either base colour and then a thin layer of rabbit/animal hide glue and then the metal foil. You do have to get the timing right with the natural glues. You want it juuuust almost fully dry, but not quite.
That is the big benefit of the modern stuff. It has almost no limit to its working time, so long as it is clean.
You could also try inks instead of the tempura, just on where you want the gilt.

Gold prices are super high. I've barely ever worked with actual gold. Most of what you can get is brass. It looks good but can tarnish over time if it's not sealed. It's been 10+ years since I did any buying so things may have changed but the Japanese stuff was hugely better than the German, which were the 2 main types out there. I always worked with loose sheets in books of usually 10 to 12 pieces rather than the stuff mounted to paper that you peel off.

You can cut or break off small pieces that are just a bit bigger that the area you want, use a static charged clean and dry paint brush to move the scrap over and another soft clean brush to smooth it down. It will crumble and brush away where there isn't any glue.