On Metal Pens
Most texts on the history of calligraphy espouse the position that metal pens are not something used in the Middle Ages. Medieval pens are almost exclusively described as made of quills or reeds; the Roman examples of bronze pens represent something that fell out of use with the collapse of the ancient world.
This just isn't true. This particular article presents the references I have found to date. It can not be considered complete, as I am still researching this area. Nonetheless, I wanted to present some evidence for tools used in writing other than the ubiquitous quill.
First, let me introduce you to the tool that started me on this little journey.
The above image is a detail of a self portrait of Lavina Fontana entitled Self Portrait in the Studio, 1579. This particular reproduction I found in Renaissance Self-Portraiture by Joanna Woods-Marsden, and on page 220, Ms. Woods-Marsden identifies the item being held by Lavina as a metal pen.
Well, I was pretty excited! While the interchangable metal nib often used by many calligraphers is a nineteenth century device, I was very excited to find that there were metal writing devices prior to 1600 and after the Roman Empire. The picture was not really clear--it is, after all, an enlargement of a miniature portrait--but the device certainly appeared, to me, to be very similar to what is modernly called a glass pen. The very tip of the pen is black, and I thought that perhaps the device was used to write with a fine line, something often seen in 15th and 16th examples of drawing and personal writing.
Alas, Ms. Woods-Marsden's interpretation was misleading. While I have not been able to find any other pictures of this device from before 1600, I have found a number of representations of this device in artist's portraits from the first quarter of the 17th century and one 18th century representation.
This is a detail of Nicholas Poussin's self portrait of 1649 (See Schneider); it is an excellent example of what most of these instruments look like. What he holds has two seperately colored ends, and the ends appear to be some sort of insert rather than a channel for wicking up paints and inks. Similar tools appear in Self Portrait with parents and half-brother by either Ventura Salimbeni or Francesco Vanni, first decade of the 1600's, Allegory of Painting and Architecture, Francesco Rustici, early 1620's, and Self Portrait with Portrait of Sister, Rosalba Carriera, 1709. (See Uffizi Gallery). In these pictures, the points of the devices are black, red, and white.
The Carriera self portrait is particularly interesting and appears greatly enlarged in Women Artists: An Illustrated History, 3rd ed. The tool is clearly in use to draw a pastel-type picture. There are a number of pastel-like things at the base of the pastel-like picture.
At one time, I ran across a reference for period "crayons;" Cennini mentions drawing with crayons but provides no obvious directions for making them. I'd often wondered what those might be, sure that the writers couldn't mean modern Crayola's (tm), but assuming that they were perhaps a predecessor to those delightful drawing tools of my childhood. Too, I was not the only one I knew wondering what this ment. Eventually, I found the following tidbit, from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, compiled and editied from the original manuscript by Jean Paul Richter, volume I, Dover, 1970.
"612. To make points (crayons) for coloring dry. Temper a little wax and do not dry it; which wax you must dissolve with water: so that when the white lead is thus tempered, the water being distilled, may go off in vapor and the wax may remain; you will thus make good crayons; but you must know that the colors must be ground with a hot stone."
ALthough I can only surmise this, I have concluded that the device appearing above is a holder for period drawing points, which could conceivably be da Vinci's crayons, sharpened graphite (called "black lead" in period and the marking componant in modern pencils), or other sorts of drawing materials.
While I was happy to come to a reasonable conclusion regarding the above device, I was still looking for information on metal, medieval pens. While there is ample evidence for metal drawing tools (silver points, lead points) and metal stylii used with wax tablets, it was difficult to find evidence of a metal pen, either broad- or fine-tipped.
I was then provided with this short quotation:
"Pen.
Polished goose radius. Proximal end pointed from one side, point bevelled and split to form nib. Similar to examples found in 13th and 14th century levels at Barn Road, Norwich, and Canbridge (MacGregor 1985, 125). Metal examples are also known, e.g., a copper alloy pen found in the river Thames with 15th c. material in 1982 (Alexander and Binski 1987, 384). Legnth 115:3mm. Diameter: 6.4 mm." (see Walsh).
Metal pens made of copper-alloy sheeting have been found "in 15th century contexts, with the same edge to edge seams on the tubes as for the chapes" (Egan and Pritchard, 286); that is, constructed in a manner similar to the metal points used to end laces.
I was glad to find that pens had been made of both bones and metal. Later, I found that the Museum of London has on display a pen and inkpot set; the pen is metal. Here is a picture, courtesy of Randy Asplund.
It's hard to tell in the picture, but I think the pen is broad nibbed rather than pointed.
Further search revealed the above, what appears to be a metal pen, from a 1570 English set of drawing tools. In the 16th century, metal pens were sometimes given away as prizes in contests, or as toys of status for the very rich, but the above pen shows evidence of use, indicating that not all metal pens were playthings.
Direction for making metal pens to emulate those used in period may be found in the article Pens and Points: Medieval Copper Alloy Cones, in Tournements Illuminated, Winter 1993, issue #109.
Metal pens may not have been ubiquitous in period, but the archaeological records certainly prove that they existed. Too, pens may have also been made of hollow bones. Writing instruments were not limited to quills and reeds, although this is not generally broadcast. While quills remain the most responsive of calligraphy tools, do not feel that modern metal nibs are 100% anachronistic. Our predecessors wrote with metal pens, too, and your nibs might be considered a modern equivalent.
Asplund, Randy. (Scribal Tools in Museums and Manuscripts). http://www.provide.net/~randyaf/ScribeTools.html. Have a look at the scribe desk and lovely water tray.
Carvalho, David. Forty Centuries of Ink. The article section of this site links to the Project Gutenburg etext version of this book.
Egan, G. and F. Pritchard. Dress Accessories c. 1150-c. 1450. London:HMSO, 1991.
MacGregor, A. Bone, Antler, Ivory, and Horn: The Technology of Skeletal Materials Since the Roman Period. Barnes and Noble: Totowa, NJ. 1985.
Schneider, N. The Art of the Portrait.Barnes & Noble:New York, 1997.
Mehelis, Lee. Period Penmanship. http://reenactment.about.com/hobbies/reenactment/library/weekly/aa022100.htm (wayback version)
Walsh, Claire. Archaeological Excavations at Patrick, Nicholas and Winetavern Streets, Dublin. Brandon Book Publishers, Dublin, 1997.
Woods-Marsden, J. Renaissance Self-Portraiture
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