Been fiddling about on the net this afternoon...found out that quill pens were used until the late 1800's and spectacles were invented in 1200 or thereabouts...vellum...used to write on, was terribly expensive because the best vellum came from the skin of new-born or still- born goats and calves...rearing and feeding the cows and goats to produce enough skins was difficult enough. Sheep were also used but the preference of the scribes was the skin of calves. Vellum was used mostly for important manuscripts...some of which have been found re-reused as book bindings.
Quill pens were made from fallen feathers rather than those which had been plucked from a Goose or other large bird...the end inserted into hot sand to harden and the feathery parts totally stripped off...a small sharp knife whittled the end into an approximation of the pens we used to use at school...the quill would last a long time because once the end was worn the user simply reshaped it.
Goose feathers were the first choice though any strong wing feather from larger birds were used as well...it was the scribe who made his own quills, mixed his own inks...using the Oak Gall. Those small lumps you sometimes find growing among the leaves of Oak trees. They are actually the home of a parasitic wasp but when ground up they produce a long lasting Black ink or dye...makes you wonder who found that out.
Other dyes were used for coloured inks...the Cochineal beetle produces a clear red and blue came from the expensive Lapis Lazuli...I like to imagine the traders coming from far off countries with their little cloth bags of precious beetles and the stones of the Lapis Lazuli...
Illuminated letters were often decorated in gold...gold leaf was used...laid down over a base of Gesso...which is still used by artists nowadays...then polished and held fast with a smooth stone...rubbing it over and over again.
Those scribes sat at an easel on a high backed chair...carefully recording the words of a Kings proclamation or copying the Scriptures...writing Herbals and the thoughts of the learned people of their day...sometimes practising their writing by copying the alphabet in the margins or doodling tiny figures...
Many of those manuscripts no longer survive...victims to the purges carried out at the Dissolution of the Monasteries... and by Cromwell and others of his ilk...some are carefully hoarded in private collections...others are on display in museums...and some have been found when restoration is carried out on old leather-bound books...laid between the book covers and covered with thin soft leather ...treasures have been revealed.
I've been using a huge book I have of Rembrandts paintings to press flowers, having decided zapping them with microwaves is uncalled for...while looking again at the wonderful illustrations I found one of a scribe...which led me to Goose feather quills...and inks and vellum...
Donkeys Under The Hearthstone...And Painting The Ceiling...
Sunday
