[MR] medieval writing inplements (Fwd: Aoife-Links Digest, Vol 5, Issue 2)

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In a message dated 2/10/2005 12:03:49 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
aoife-links-request at scatoday.net writes:

Message:  1
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 21:35:50 -0500
From: "Aoife"  <aoife at scatoday.net>
Subject: [Aoife-Links] Mightier than the  Sword...Medieval writing
implements    and related  topics
To: <aoife-links at scatoday.net>
Message-ID:  <006d01c50f19$3c3dcf90$fc75bacc at pcbz6mpmt4r04r>
Content-Type:  text/plain;    charset="iso-8859-1"

Greetings my Faithful  Readers!

Not long ago, near to the date of Epiphany and in an email  message to me,
Erlan Nordskald penned: "I don't know if you ever did one (a  links list) on
writing implements, not like scribal resources, but actually  the history of
things that people wrote with....but, I have interests in  knowing about the
pencil, wax crayons, pens.... how early did writing  materials come about...
and other than the
quill/ink... what was  there?"

Of course, this is a terrific idea, picking out specific tools  used by the
average Medieval Person in their daily life and researching  their medieval
existence. The only question remains...Can Aoife find enough  information on
this tricky and esoteric topic? Read on, and you will see  (and please feel
free to share this information widely, wherever it will  find a ready and
interested audience). This information could be of use to  the average
re-enactor, scribes, artisans, and craftspersons. After all,  where else can
you find a link to a visual on a  medieval paperclip  :)

Cheers

Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon, wanna-be  scribe
Canton of Riverouge
Barony of Endless Hills
Kingdom of  Aethelmearc

Medieval Writing: The Quill  Pen
http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/tools/quill.htm
(Site Excerpt) You  can try this at home without creating hazard, but a lot
of practice and  patience might be needed to get a good result. Simple
technology is like  that. The scribe first selected a feather. It didn't have
to be a  particularly exotic variety, but a good strong flight feather from
the wing  of a robust bird worked the best. Medieval re-enactors and people
putting  on plays please note that there were not many ostriches running
around  northern Europe in the middle ages. It was usual to cut back the
plume of  the feather and remove the barb, or feathery bits, from at least
the  underside of the central barrel of the feather. Despite the loss  of
romantic affectation, this made it easier to write with and it didn't  scrape
the scribe's hand. Most pictures of scribes show them holding what  looks
like a narrow stick rather than something fluffy.

Regia  Anglorum: Quills Part 1: Broad  Guidelines
http://www.regia.org/quills.htm
(Site Excerpt) If you attempt  to cut the quill it could well shatter, so
before cutting immerse the tip  into boiling water for a few seconds. This
will give the quill the  consistency of a finger nail. You may now cut the
nib, cutting   horizontally across the root. Clean out the matter within the
quill, then  make two diagonal cuts that come to an apex at the point.
Carefully cut  along the centre of the point for approx. 10mm. You can now
chose the width  of the nib by simply cutting it.
SEE ALSO: Part 3:  INK
http://www.regia.org/quill3.htm
(Site Excerpt) Here are some ink  recipes:1: (Taken from the twelfth century
manual 'On Divers Arts' by  Theophilus)
'When you are going to make ink, cut some pieces of [hawthorn  wood in April
or May, before they grow blossoms or leaves. Make little  bundles of them and
let them lie in the shade for two, three, or four  weeks, until they are
dried out a little. Then you should have wooden  mallets with which you
should pound the thorn on another hard piece of  wood, until you have
completely removed the bark....

Materials and  Techniques of Manuscript    Production   5:  Pen
http://www.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/pen.html
(Site Excerpt)  Everyone is familiar with the image of the medieval scribe
copying texts  with a quill pen: it is quite correct. The inks were thicker
and more  glutinous than modern commercial ink, and there are numerous
medieval  recipes for their manufacture but there are almost no medieval
instructions  for the cutting of pens. All literate people evidently prepared
their own  pens and there was thus no merit in writing about how it was  done.

Stefan's Florilegium: Scribal  Arts
http://www.florilegium.org/files/SCRIBAL-ARTS/idxscribes.html
A  vast array of collected knowledge. For this topic click on Inks, or
Iwandoc  (inkwells and pen cases), Quills, Sealing-wax,  Wax-tablets,  Writing
Desks and Writing Isntruments.

Chester Amphitheatre:  Medieval  Finds
http://www.chester.gov.uk/amphitheatre/finds-med.htm
Scroll down  to see a medieval paperclip, and a medieval copper pen

The Roll of the  Wax Tablet in Medieval  Literacy
http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/artefacts/tablet1.htm
(Site  Excerpt) In a patch of muddy wasteland a dark brown rectangular (30mm
x  50mm) waterlogged object was spotted lying in what seemed to be a  rubbish
pit. It had fallen open to reveal writing!... The first text is  written in
Middle English and is part of a poem. Not all has yet been  deciphered but
the poem contains a phrase interpreted as '....still she did  not answer me,
but she didn't say no...',

The Waxed Tablet Page of  Randy  Asplund
http://www.randyasplund.com/browse/scribepg/tablets.html
(Site  Excerpt) The stylus you see was made by forging and grinding a nail.
The  horizontal smears on the right side are from the spatulate end wiping
the  surface back to flat. It can be further smoothed by waving it lightly
over  a flame.

Midlaurel Weblinks: Wax  Tablets
http://www.midlaurel.com/wsnlinks/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=218
11  links to articles on Wax Tablets

Making an Illuminated  Page
http://www.randyasplund.com/browse/tournpg/tipg3.html
(Site  Excerpt) The second step was to draw a fairly complete linear
rendering of  the design  (see fig. 2) with what a medieval craftsman called
a  crayon. The medieval crayon was much like a pencil, being made of  hardened
pigment paste, and so I used a .5 mm 2h pencil to emulate it. Lead  styluses
were also used in the middle ages to mark a metallic grey line.  The next
medieval step would have been to finalize the lines with ink, but  I skipped
that step on this one to save time. With modern kneaded erasers  there is so
much control over the cleanup of the final lines anyway, that  inking before
erasing is unnecessary.

The city on a hill - and on a  crayon by Gena Reisner (note: not alot of
crayon information, but  interesting to note how some colors are  named)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0129/p15s01-altr.html
(Site  Excerpt) The burnt sienna in every big box of crayons is named for  the
color of the earth around Siena, Italy - a reddish-brown hill town  of
medieval buildings, narrow alleyways, and old squares surrounded  by
vineyards, olive groves, and cypress trees.

The Columbia  Encyclopedia: The Pencil
http://www.bartleby.com/65/pe/pencil.html
(Site  Excerpt) The Egyptians ruled lines with metallic lead, as did  medieval
monks. The so-called lead pencil-a rod of graphite encased in  wood-came into
use in the 16th cent.

The Ink Compendium
copyright  1998, E.  Boucher
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Library/2036/ink.html
(Site  Excerpt) The history of writing itself becomes a bit more clear with
the  arrival of the first cuniform tablets. By the time we get to our period
of  interest, however, we have individuals not only making ink, but writing
the  process down for posterity. Ink, the word, derives from incausium,
refering  to the product's ability to "burn into" the writing surface.
Different  types of ink will have different abilities to sink or soak into
the writing  surface; too, different surfaces will allow penetration of some
types of  ink, while repelling other types of inks.

How To Cut a Bamboo Pen
A  demonstration by Ward Dunham
http://catalog.com/gallery/Pen.html
(Site  Excerpt) Reed pens are many centuries old. They are used for
Calligraphy  that needs a broad-edged, flexible pen. Ward uses bamboo pens
for  Blackletter and other Gothic writing. The pens are about seven inches
long  and one half to one inch wide at the tip.