INK SECRETAS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY COMPARED WITH EARLIER ONES--APPEARANCE OF TANNO-GALLATE OF IRON INK IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY--ITS INTRODUCTION LOCATES THE EPOCH WHEN THE MODERN INK OF TO-DAY FIRST CAME INTO VOGUE--ITS APPROVAL AND ADOPTION BY THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH--THE INVENTION NOT ITALIAN BUT ASIATIC--ITS ARRIVAL FROM ASIA FROM THE WEST AND NOT THE EAST--APPEARANCE ABOUT THE SAME TIME OF LINEN OR MODERN PAPER--SETTLEMENT OF OLD CONTROVERSIES ABOUT ANCIENT SO-CALLED COTTON PAPER-DE VINNE'S COMMENT ABOUT PAPER AND PAPER-MAKING--CURIOUS CONTRACT OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. THE "Secretas" of the twelfth century, in so far as they relate to methods of making ink, indicate many departures from those contained in the more ancient ones. Frequent mention is made of sour galls, aleppo galls, green and blue vitriol, the lees of wine, black amber, sugar, fish-glue and a host of unimportant materials as being employed in the admixture of black inks. Combinations of some of these materials are expressed in formulas, the most important one of which details with great particularity the commingling together of an infusion of nut-galls, green vitriol (sulphate of iron) and fish-glue (isinglass); the two first (tanno-gallate of iron) when used alone, forms the sole base of all unadulterated "gall" inks. Dates are appended to some of these ink and other formulas. The "tanno-gallate of iron" one has, however, no date. But as it appears closely following a date of A. D. 1126, it must have been written about that time. Documents, public and private, bearing dates nearly contemporary with that era, written in ink of like type, are still extant, confirming in a remarkable degree the "Secreta" formula, and establishing the fact that the first half of the twelfth century marks the epoch in which the "gall" or modern ink of today came into vogue. Its adoption by the priests stamped it with the seal of the Church and the arrival from the West about the same period of flax or linen paper with the added fact that these assimilated so well together, later placed them both on the popular basis which has continued to the present time. While the Secreta which contains the "gall" ink formula is of Italian origin, the invention of this ink belongs solely to an Asiatic country, from whence in gradual stages by way of Arabia, Spain and France, it finally reached Rome. Thence, through the Church, information about it was conveyed to wherever civilization existed.