Cennini's "The Craftsman's Handbook" as well as Leonardo Da Vinci's "Treatise on Painting" are pretty good books from the 1400s and 1500s. They use oil and egg

Cennini's "The Craftsman's Handbook" as well as Leonardo Da Vinci's "Treatise on Painting" are pretty good books from the 1400s and 1500s. They use oil and egg as medium instead of acrylic, but the interesting chemistry starting from a piece of rock or whatever is great to nerd out on.