Historical survey of the composition of black writing inks from Antiquity to the 17th century. The first part deals with the evolution in ink manufacturing through time and space, starting with carbon ink in the Far East in the remote past and continuing with the coming into use of metallo-gallic (cupro-and ferro-gallic) inks for liturgical use among the Jews and Moslems in the 9th-century Near East and later in western Europe in the 12th century. The author surveys the relationships between the nature of the support and the evolution of the chemical composition of the inks. She suggests the need for a historical study of the supports to parallel that of the inks. The second part of the book consists of a collection of historical recipes for manufacturing the various categories of inks under scrutiny (carbon inks, metallo-gallic inks, mixed inks and incomplete inks) classified geographically and chronologically. Explanatory notes on the substances used in the recipes are contained in an appendix; There is also a list of manuscripts containing recipes for ink. The author refers the interested reader to chemical studies now under way at the Centre de Recherche sur la Conservation des Documents Graphiques under the direction of Mme F. Flieder.