Where did you get that pen?

[Rosemary Tea]

As I was buying some ballpoint pens the other day, I found myself wondering how people acquired their writing implements back in the days of quill and ink. I realize that's a very long when, so to be more specific, let's say late medieval to Renaissance era. Before industrialization but after the advent of quill pens.

Did people just make their own pens and ink? Was making them a trade in itself? Did the pen and ink maker, if there was such a trade, exclusively make pens and ink (or just one or the other), or would those items just be one of many things s/he made? If one of many, what might the other things be?

This question isn't necessarily specific to a wip, but could be worked into one. If I need to give a character a chore or an errand, maybe they could be making ink or going to buy some quills.

 

[pmmg]

I found this:

The ink of ancient manuscripts was usually one of two kinds. There was ink made of a mixture of soot and gum. These were sold in the form of a bar, which was dissolved in water in an inkwell, and produced a very black ink. There was also ink made out of nutgalls, which resulted in a rusty-brown color. Aside from these materials, the scribe would have had a knife to sharpen his reed pen, as well as a sponge to erase errors. With the semi-professional and professional scribe, each character was written with care. Thus, writing was a slow, tedious, and often difficult task.

Here: How Were the Scribes in Antiquity and What Were Their Tools and Materials?

I suspect part of the skill set of a scribe was to make ink.

I also suspect there were many other ways to make ink.

PS: I hate pens. They dont work for left handed people. I use pencils

 

[Rosemary Tea]

I found a recipe on the internet for beet ink. Ingredients: beets, water, vinegar, and salt. The process isn't much different from making soup. Easy enough in any era. There are also lots of how to make a quill instructions.

I know quills and ink could be homemade. What I'm asking is whether diy was the standard, historically, or making them was something someone in particular did and everyone else bought quills and ink from them. In particular, in the part of history when quills were still the standard writing implement and enough people were literate that there could potentially have been a trade in them.

 

[pmmg]

Well, I can do some google searches, but I am not sure how easy this would be to find.

My suspicion is, whenever there is a market, someone will supply it. So I would imagine that in places where there may be higher levels commercial activity, there may be some who just sell it, and a scribe would buy it ready made. In less commercial areas, they may have to make it themselves, out of whatever they could find and worked. My guess is also, they would probably to shown by others how to do this, so a lot of trial and error is removed.

I would also guess that it matters at what period in time they are in, and what is going on in the world. If, for example, all the ink came from India, and there was a war with them, there might be less supply.

If I was an writing and inventive type in a rural area, I would probably make my own. I'd find something that suited and use that. It may be that every culture has its own best source of ink, and they may all be different.

But I dont know without doing some reading. I've heard more about the paper over the years, then the inks.

 

[Mad Swede]

OK. To make a quill pen you first need suitable feathers. Quill pens are made from the primary flight feathers, and you get the feathers when the birds moult. The feathers of choice were goose or swan, although raven and crow feathers were sometimes used for very fine writing and drawing. The feathers (and hence the quality of the quill pen) were numbered in the order in which they were attached to the wing. The best quills were made from the first feather, but the second and third were also used. Any feather out to the fifth or sixth was considered satisfactory. In short, one bird would give 10 or 12 quills.

Once you'd got the feathers you would strip the barbs (the feathery bit) off the quill, then cut what was left (the barrel) to length. Some people would leave a few barns at the end of the quill for decoration. Quill pens need to be hardened so that they don't wear too quickly, and this was usually done in one of two ways. If you were only doing one quill you'd stir the quill barrel in the ashes of a fire. If you were doing several quills you'd usually boil up a mixture of alum and water, then soak the barrels in that for a few minutes. Once that was done, you'd flatten the quill with the back of a pen knife, then roll the quill between your fingers. After that you would use the convex side of the pen knife to cut (dress) the quill to shape for writing.

Making a quill pen was usually done by the scribes themselves, but sometimes (as in monasteries) you'd get someone who's job it was to make the quills needed. If you have a setting which requires a lot of quill pens then maybe you could have a specialist supplier, but availability might vary over the year given that birds only moult once a year.

There is no such thing as a left or right handed quill pen.

You resharpen the quill as required with a pen knife, until the quill is too short to be used. Properly hardened quills can go quite long periods without sharpening, although this does depend on what you are writing on. Paper made from wood pulp is very hard on a quill pen.

 

[pmmg]

There is no such thing as a left or right handed quill pen.

This is not likely true, and for the same reasons.

So long as we are writing left to write, a right handed person is pulling the pen across the page making letters, and a lefty is pushing. The ink flow comes naturally one way and not the other. I think that would remain true for quills. Maybe even more so.

With pencils there is no ink flow, but lefties tend to smudge the page with their palm as its resting over the letters that were just created.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

Maybe it would make a difference which way the nib is cut? Could it work best if the nib is cut to one side for a righty and to the other side for a lefty? Which would mean right handed and left handed quill pens. Like there are right handed and left handed scissors (though I don't think I've ever seen left handed scissors outside of an elementary school classroom).

The majority of the population worldwide is right handed. Yet there are languages that are written right to left: Arabic and Hebrew, for example. If pushing the pen across the page isn't compatible with the way ink flows, how did those scripts get invented by a right handed majority?

Perhaps the real problem is the way you were taught to hold a pen.

Mad Swede great point about birds only molting once a year.

I suppose poultry farmers living near a university or a scriptorium could make some big money when their birds molt, selling the feathers to make quill pens.

 

[pmmg]

The majority of the population worldwide is right handed. Yet there are languages that are written right to left: Arabic and Hebrew, for example. If pushing the pen across the page isn't compatible with the way ink flows, how did those scripts get invented by a right handed majority?

Well, for me, I used to get frustrated and throw pens out thinking they stopped working. Later I learned why, so I just stopped using them. Those ancient people probably shook their pens a lot and dealt with it. I can write with a pen, it just tend to act like it ran out of ink a lot. Course, those are ball point pends. Felt tips dont have this issue. But they smudge.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

I can write with a pen, it just tend to act like it ran out of ink a lot. Course, those are ball point pends.

I run into that too, if the pen is anything but brand new, and I'm right handed.

I also have dyspraxia. Which makes it difficult to impossible for me to accomplish some fine motor tasks. I can't use a mechanical pencil without breaking the lead.

Those ancient people probably shook their pens a lot and dealt with it.

Shaking the pen only works if the ink is already in the pen. That's so with a ballpoint. That's not so with a quill.

If your quill's acting like it's out of ink, it's time to dip it in the ink again.

If anything, I would think using a quill would be easier for people who, for whatever reason, don't write the "normal" way. You can dip it in the ink however often you need to, and tilt the pen whichever way makes the ink flow best for you. You don't have to rely on a standardized prefilled pen designed to work with a standardized amount and location of pressure.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

The feathers of choice were goose or swan, although raven and crow feathers were sometimes used for very fine writing and drawing.

I just did a search for what kind of feathers could be used for quill making. Several sources say turkey feathers were the most popular in North America. Makes sense. One source said owl and macaw feathers also work.

Macaw is a surprise. Those birds aren't that big.

Makes me wonder if quills could be made from pigeon feathers. Then some enterprising soul could start a postal service with carrier pigeons to carry the mail, and as a bonus, sell quill pens made from the pigeon feathers....

 

[WritesWithUnicorns]

According to Wikiversity, the quill pen was invented in Spain around the 6th century. High quality pens were made from swan feathers while average quality pens were made from goose feathers. It doesn't say if people made them commercially or if it was a DIY activity. I suspect that people of means paid other people for their pens and of course sought out quills made from the quality feathers. The people of less means either bought the average quality or made their own.

As with anything I'm sure someone was turning it into a business. I mean where did their paper? How about the ink? If someone was selling paper and ink then you can bet they realized they could make money selling quills as well.

I prefer my keyboard.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

As with anything I'm sure someone was turning it into a business. I mean where did their paper? How about the ink? If someone was selling paper and ink then you can bet they realized they could make money selling quills as well.

Making paper requires different skills and resources from making quills and ink. It doesn't necessarily follow that if someone made and sold paper they would also be making and selling quills and ink.

Paper can be homemade, too - rag paper, for instance - but it's an intensive process. That makes it much easier to buy paper from someone who specializes in making it than for everyone to make their own. Quills are much simpler to make. Ink, too.

It doesn't seem unlikely to me that people might have been making their own quills and ink but buying their writing paper. But I don't know if that actually was the case.

 

[WritesWithUnicorns]

I'm sure there were various approaches, depending on location, availability of materials, demographics, etcetera. People are enterprising critters, so who knows?

 

[Mad Swede]

This is not likely true, and for the same reasons.

So long as we are writing left to write, a right handed person is pulling the pen across the page making letters, and a lefty is pushing. The ink flow comes naturally one way and not the other. I think that would remain true for quills. Maybe even more so.

With pencils there is no ink flow, but lefties tend to smudge the page with their palm as its resting over the letters that were just created.

Historically, people were deliberately discouraged from writing left handed. So almost all scribes and calligraphers wrote right handed. With quill pens, you hold them so that the nib writes in the way you want. This is part of the calligraphy technique, turning the quill (and hence the nib) slightly to get the sort of line you want. So no, you don't have a left or right handed quill pen. You have a quill pen which you hold in a manner appropriate to what you are writing.

 

[Mad Swede]

Making paper requires different skills and resources from making quills and ink. It doesn't necessarily follow that if someone made and sold paper they would also be making and selling quills and ink.

Paper can be homemade, too - rag paper, for instance - but it's an intensive process. That makes it much easier to buy paper from someone who specializes in making it than for everyone to make their own. Quills are much simpler to make. Ink, too.

It doesn't seem unlikely to me that people might have been making their own quills and ink but buying their writing paper. But I don't know if that actually was the case.

I think it depends on what sort of work you did. I read somewhere that Exchequer clerks in the UK at the beginning of the 1800s had an allowance of between 100 and 300 quill pens a quarter, which works out at something like 1 to 3 quill pens per day. That suggests they were so busy they didn't have time to make or resharpen their own quills, so there must have been someone who provided new quill pens and resharpened others. So at least in the bigger cities there must have been stationers who supplied pens, inks and paper.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

I think it depends on what sort of work you did. I read somewhere that Exchequer clerks in the UK at the beginning of the 1800s had an allowance of between 100 and 300 quill pens a quarter, which works out at something like 1 to 3 quill pens per day. That suggests they were so busy they didn't have time to make or resharpen their own quills, so there must have been someone who provided new quill pens and resharpened others. So at least in the bigger cities there must have been stationers who supplied pens, inks and paper.

Sure... in the 1800s. Which was the industrial era.

For this purpose, my main interest is the late pre-industrial period. After literacy had started expanding, to the point that enough people were writing for a trade in pens and ink to possibly be worthwhile, but before there was much if anything in the way of factories or large offices.

I'm thinking more about the small scale. What did people in that time use for writing letters? What did small businessmen use for keeping business records? Homemade quills and ink, or purchased ones?

And while I didn't think about this initially, I'm now curious what schoolteachers in that time would have used to teach penmanship. Did they make quills for their students? Buy them? Did the students make or buy their own? Who supplied the ink?

I know school lessons before the early - mid twentieth century were mostly done orally or on slates, not paper, but paper, pen, and ink would still have been needed for penmanship lessons.

That tidbit about the Exchequer clerks is interesting, though, and something I'll definitely keep in mind.

 

[Mad Swede]

Sure... in the 1800s. Which was the industrial era.

For this purpose, my main interest is the late pre-industrial period. After literacy had started expanding, to the point that enough people were writing for a trade in pens and ink to possibly be worthwhile, but before there was much if anything in the way of factories or large offices.

I'm thinking more about the small scale. What did people in that time use for writing letters? What did small businessmen use for keeping business records? Homemade quills and ink, or purchased ones?

And while I didn't think about this initially, I'm now curious what schoolteachers in that time would have used to teach penmanship. Did they make quills for their students? Buy them? Did the students make or buy their own? Who supplied the ink?

I know school lessons before the early - mid twentieth century were mostly done orally or on slates, not paper, but paper, pen, and ink would still have been needed for penmanship lessons.

That tidbit about the Exchequer clerks is interesting, though, and something I'll definitely keep in mind.

It's a mistake to think there wasn't much in the way of clerical work before the 1800s. Government required a great deal of record keeping, and most of it wasn't printed. So did businesses, you needed contracts, bills of exchange, receipts, etc. Church records too, were written. Literature, certainly in Shakespeares time, was handwritten - some of his plays only appear in printed form after his death so the actors must have been using hand written copies before that. In fact, some seventeenth-century poets, among them Donne, Corbett, Strode, King, Carew, Pestell, Marvell, Cotton, Katherine Philips, Traherne, Rochester and Dorset, wrote primarily for scribal transmission. Yes, an author, a scribe or a clerk might have made their own quills. But equally, they may well have bought them from a stationer, especially if they lived in a town and were doing a lot of writing.

As for schools, those who learnt to write were the children of those with money or at least a steady income. So they may have had quill pens made or bought for them. They were probably taught how to make or at least sharpen quills, as they would have been taught how to make ink.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

It's a mistake to think there wasn't much in the way of clerical work before the 1800s. Government required a great deal of record keeping, and most of it wasn't printed. So did businesses, you needed contracts, bills of exchange, receipts, etc. Church records too, were written. Literature, certainly in Shakespeares time, was handwritten - some of his plays only appear in printed form after his death so the actors must have been using hand written copies before that. In fact, some seventeenth-century poets, among them Donne, Corbett, Strode, King, Carew, Pestell, Marvell, Cotton, Katherine Philips, Traherne, Rochester and Dorset, wrote primarily for scribal transmission. Yes, an author, a scribe or a clerk might have made their own quills. But equally, they may well have bought them from a stationer, especially if they lived in a town and were doing a lot of writing.

Good point.

As for schools, those who learnt to write were the children of those with money or at least a steady income. So they may have had quill pens made or bought for them. They were probably taught how to make or at least sharpen quills, as they would have been taught how to make ink.

I've learned from some quick online research that primary education was compulsory, and available for free, in parts of Germany as early as the 1500s, and that Scotland established compulsory schools, which were free to those who couldn't pay, in the 1600s. So there was schooling for children of those without money in some places during the age of the quill. I wonder how those children received their school supplies.

 

[skip.knox]

Market would have a lot to do with it. So, in the countryside--and here I'm mainly thinking of monasteries--it's likely production would be local. So would the teaching of penmanship.

In cities, otoh, you'd be more likely to find someone who would make pen and ink commercially, since there would be a large enough market for that. Town governments, guilds, churches and (urban) monasteries, nobles (who often had a town residence), schools--there would be a steady demand. It wasn't unusual to find small-scale craftsmen folded into a larger guild, so you might find such a person in an apothecary guild, for example.

There's been a fair amount of work done on the topic by scholars. This little essay has some references
Scribes'Toolkit
There's a wonderfully obscure (but important!) branch of history called diplomatics. This is the study of manuscripts to determine origin and, sometimes, authorship. Those specialists get deep into types of paper (and its relatives) as well as pens and inks, as well as styles of handwriting. There were fashions--too long-lived and important to be called fads--in handwriting that are very important in diplomatics.

It should be noted that in addition to quill pens, reed pens were widespread.

I'm very fond of writing with a fountain pen, as it is easier on my arthritic hands. Plus, I'm a sucker for ink colors!

 

[Rosemary Tea]

Market would have a lot to do with it. So, in the countryside--and here I'm mainly thinking of monasteries--it's likely production would be local. So would the teaching of penmanship.

In cities, otoh, you'd be more likely to find someone who would make pen and ink commercially, since there would be a large enough market for that. Town governments, guilds, churches and (urban) monasteries, nobles (who often had a town residence), schools--there would be a steady demand. It wasn't unusual to find small-scale craftsmen folded into a larger guild, so you might find such a person in an apothecary guild, for example.

There's been a fair amount of work done on the topic by scholars. This little essay has some references
Scribes'Toolkit
There's a wonderfully obscure (but important!) branch of history called diplomatics. This is the study of manuscripts to determine origin and, sometimes, authorship. Those specialists get deep into types of paper (and its relatives) as well as pens and inks, as well as styles of handwriting. There were fashions--too long-lived and important to be called fads--in handwriting that are very important in diplomatics.

It should be noted that in addition to quill pens, reed pens were widespread.

I'm very fond of writing with a fountain pen, as it is easier on my arthritic hands. Plus, I'm a sucker for ink colors!

Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for.