As long as people wrote upon tables covered with wax, they were
obliged to use a style or bodkin made of bone, metal, or some other
hard substance; but when they began to write with coloured liquids,
they employed a reed, and afterwards quills or feathers. This is
well-known, and has been proved by various authors[1208]. There are two
circumstances however in regard to this subject, which require some
further research; and which I shall endeavour to illustrate by such
information as I have been able to collect. With what kind of reeds did
people write? When, and where were feathers first employed and for that
purpose?
It is rather astonishing that we are ignorant of what kind of reeds the
ancients used for writing, though they have mentioned the places where
they grew wild, and where, it is highly probable, they grow still.
Besides, we have reason to suppose that the same reeds are used even
at present by all the Oriental nations; for it is well known, that
among the people of the East old manners and instruments are not easily
banished by new modes and new inventions. Most authors who have treated
on the history of writing have contented themselves with informing
their readers that a reed was employed; but the genus of plants called
by the ancients _Calamus_ and _Arundo_, is more numerous in species
than the genus of grasses, to which their corn belonged; and it might
perhaps be as difficult to determine with accuracy what kind of reed
they employed for writing, as to distinguish the species of grain
called _far_, _alica_, and _avena_.
The most beautiful reeds of this kind grew formerly in Egypt[1209];
near Cnidus, a city and district in the province of Caria, in Asia
Minor[1210]; and likewise in Armenia and Italy[1211]. Those which
grew in the last-mentioned country, seem to have been considered by
Pliny as too soft and spongy: but his words are so obscure that little
can be gathered from them; and though the above places have been
explored in later times by many experienced botanists, they have not
supplied us with much certain information respecting this species of
reed. It is however particularly mentioned by the old botanists, who
have represented it as a stem, such as I have seen in collections;
but as they give no characters sufficiently precise, Linnæus was not
able to assign any place in his system to the _Arundo scriptoria_ of
Bauhin[1212].
Chardin speaks of the reeds which grow in the marshes of Persia, and
which are sold and much sought after in the Levant, particularly for
writing. He has even described them; but his account has been of no
service to enlarge our botanical knowledge[1213]. Tournefort, who saw
them collected in the neighbourhood of Teflis, the capital of Georgia,
though his description of them is far from complete, has taught us
more than any of his predecessors. We learn from his account, that
this reed has small leaves, that it rises only to the height of a man,
and that it is not hollow, but filled with a soft spongy substance. He
has characterized it, therefore, in the following manner in his System
of Botany: Arundo orientalis, tenuifolia, caule pleno, ex qua Turcæ
calamos parant[1214]. The same words are applied to it by Miller; but
he observes that no plants of it had ever been introduced into England.
That the best writing-reeds are procured from the southern provinces
of Persia is confirmed by Dapper and Hanway. The former says that the
reeds are sown and planted near the Persian Gulf in the place mentioned
by Chardin, and he gives the same description as that traveller of the
manner in which they are prepared.
The circumstance expressly mentioned by Tournefort, that these
writing-reeds are not entirely hollow, seems to agree perfectly with
the account given by Dioscorides[1215]. It is probable that the pith
dries and becomes shrunk, especially after the preparation described
by Chardin, so that the reed can be easily freed from it in the same
manner as the marrowy substance in writing-quills is removed from
them when prepared. Something of the like kind seems to be meant by
Pliny, who, in my opinion, says that the pith dried up within the
reed, which was hollow at the lower end, but at the upper end woody
and destitute of pith. What follows refers to the flowers, which were
employed instead of feathers for beds, and also for caulking ships.
I conjectured that Forskal had given an accurate description of this
reed; but when I consulted that author, I did not find what I expected.
He only confirms that a great many reeds of different kinds grow near
the Nile, which serve to make hedges, thatch, and wattled-walls, and
which are used for various other purposes[1216].
These reeds were split and formed to a point like our quills, but
certainly it was not possible to make so clean and fine strokes,
and to write so long[1217] and so conveniently with them as one can
with quills. The use of them, however, was not entirely abandoned
when people began to write with quills, which in every country can be
procured from an animal extremely useful in many other respects. Had
the ancients been acquainted with the art of employing goose-quills for
this purpose, they would undoubtedly have dedicated to Minerva, not the
owl, but the goose.
A passage in Clemens of Alexandria, who died in the beginning of
the third century, might on the first view induce one to conjecture
that the Egyptian priests even wrote with quills. This author, after
describing a procession of these priests, says the sacred writer
had in his hand a book with writing-instruments, and on his head
feathers[1218]. But it is impossible to guess what might be the
intention of these feathers or wings on the head, among a people who
were so fond of symbols. Besides, Clemens tells us expressly, that one
of the writing-instruments was a reed with which the priests used to
write.
Some assert from a passage of Juvenal[1219], that quills were used
for writing in the time of that poet; but what he says is only a
metaphorical expression, such as has been employed by Horace[1220]
and various ancient writers. Others have endeavoured to prove the
antiquity of writing-quills from the figure of the goddess Egeria,
who is represented with a book before her, and a feather in her right
hand; but the period when this Egeria was formed is not known, and it
is probable that the feather was added by some modern artist[1221].
No drawings in manuscripts, where the authors appear with quills, are
of great antiquity. Among these is the portrait of Aristotle, in a
manuscript in the library of Vienna, which, as expressly mentioned at
the end, was drawn at Rome in the year 1457; and we have great reason
to think that the artist delineated the figure for ornamenting his
work, not after an ancient painting, but from his own imagination[1222].
If credit can be given to the anonymous author of the history of
Constantius, extracts from which have been made known by Adrian de
Valois, the use of quills for writing is as old as the fifth century.
We are informed by this author, who lived in the above century, that
Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, was so illiterate and stupid, that
during the ten years of his reign he was not able to learn to write
four letters at the bottom of his edicts. For this reason the four
letters were cut for him in a plate of gold, and the plate being laid
upon paper, he then traced out the letters with a quill[1223]. This
account is, at any rate, not improbable; for history supplies us with
more instances of such men not destined for the throne by nature,
but raised to it either by hereditary right or by accident, who had
neither abilities nor inclination for those studies which it requires.
The western empire was governed, almost about the time of Theodoric,
by the emperor Justin, who also could not write, and who used in the
like manner a piece of wood, having letters cut in it, but with this
difference, that, in tracing them out, he caused his hand to be guided
by one of his secretaries[1224].
The oldest certain account however known at present respecting
writing-quills, is a passage of Isidore, who died in the year 636,
and who, among the instruments employed for writing, mentions reeds
and feathers[1225]. Another proof of quills being used in the same
century, is a small poem on a writing-pen, to be found in the works of
Althelmus, called sometimes also Aldhelmus, Adelhemus, and Adelmus.
This writer, descended of a noble family, was the first Saxon who wrote
Latin, and who made the art of Latin poetry known to his countrymen,
and inspired them with a taste for compositions of that kind. He died
in the year 709[1226].
In the eighth century writing-pens are mentioned by Alcuin, who at
that period, in the time of Charlemagne, was of service in extending
literary knowledge. He composed poetical inscriptions for every part
of a monastery, among which there is one even for a privy[1227], and
another for a writing-study. Speaking of the latter, he says that no
one ought to talk in it, lest the pen of the transcriber should commit
a mistake[1228].
After the above period proofs occur which place the matter beyond
all doubt. Mabillon saw a manuscript of the gospels, which had been
written in the ninth century under the reign of Louis I., in which
the evangelists were represented with quills in their hands. The same
author mentions a like figure of the eleventh century[1229]. In the
twelfth century, Peter de Clugny, who by scholastic writers is called
_Venerabilis_, and who died in 1157, wrote to a friend, exhorting him
to assume the pen instead of the plough, and to transcribe, instead of
tilling land[1230]. In short, writing-quills are often called _calami_
by ancient and modern authors who wrote good Latin; and it is probable
that this word is employed by older writers than Isidore to signify
writing-pens, where, for want of other proofs, we understand reeds.
The poet Heerkens[1231] has asserted, that the use of quills for
writing is much older, and that the Romans became acquainted with
them during their residence in the Netherlands, where they could not
easily procure Egyptian reeds, and where, according to the account
of Pliny[1232], they paid so much attention to the catching of
geese. That writer, however, says that this was done on account of
the flesh of these animals, which they esteemed much when roasted,
and of the softness of their feathers, on which they were fond of
sleeping. Heerkens himself remarks, that Pliny, had he known the use
of quills for writing, would not have passed it over in silence, when
he gives so circumstantial an account of writing-reeds. He is of
opinion also, that, as the Dutch terms of art which allude to writing,
such as _schryfpen_, &c., are of Latin extraction, the Dutch must
have acquired them as well as the things signified from the Romans.
This however seems to afford very little support to his assertion.
Of more importance is the observation that in an old and beautiful
manuscript of Virgil, in the Medicean library, which was written soon
after the time of Honorius, the thickness of the strokes, and the
gradual fineness of the hair-strokes of the letters give us reason to
conjecture that they must have been written by some instrument equally
elastic as a quill, as it is not probable that such strokes could be
made with a stiff reed[1233]. It is also certain that the letters of
the greater part of ancient manuscripts, particularly those found at
Herculaneum, are written in a much stiffer and more uniform manner. But
little confidence is to be placed in this observation; for we do not
know but the ancient artists may have been acquainted with some method
of giving elasticity to their reeds, and may have employed them in such
a manner as to produce beautiful writing.
Notwithstanding the great advantage which quills have over reeds
for writing, the latter however seem to have continued long in
use even with the former. This conclusion I do not form, because
_calamus_ and _arundo_ are to be found in the works of late writers;
for many authors may have employed these old Latin words to express
quills, like Cassiodorus, who in the sixth century, when exhorting
the monks to transcribe theological works, used both these terms
indiscriminately[1234]; but I found my assertion on the testimony
of diplomatists, and particularly on the undoubted mention made of
writing-reeds in the sixteenth century.
Men of letters, well-versed in diplomatics, assure us, from comparing
manuscripts, that writing-reeds were used along with quills in the
eighth century, at least in France, and that the latter first began
to be common in the ninth. The papal acts, and those of synods, must
however have been written with reeds much later[1235]. In convents they
were retained for texts and initials, while, for small writing, quills
were everywhere employed.
I can allow little credit to a conjecture supported merely by a
similarity of the strokes in writing, because it is probable that
people at first would endeavour to write in as strong and coarse a
manner with quills, as had been before done with reeds, in order
that the writing might not seem much different from what was usual;
and with quills one can produce writing both coarse and fine. M.
Meiners, however, referred me to a passage in a letter of Reuchlin,
which removes all doubt on the subject. When this worthy man, to whom
posterity is so much indebted, was obliged to fly by the cruelty
of his enemies, famine and the plague, and to leave behind him all
his property, he was supplied with the most common necessaries by
Pirkheimer[1236]. Among other articles the latter sent to him, in the
year 1520, writing materials, good paper, pen-knives, and, instead of
peacocks-feathers which he had requested, the best swan-quills. That
nothing might be wanting, he added also proper reeds, of so excellent a
sort, that Reuchlin considered them to be Egyptian or Cnidian[1237].
These reeds at that period must have been scarce and in great request,
as it appears by some letters of Erasmus to Reuchlin, for my knowledge
of which I am under obligations to M. Meiners, that the former received
three reeds from the latter, and expressed a wish that Reuchlin, when
he procured more, would send some of them to a learned man in England,
who was a common friend to both[1238].
Whatever may have been the cause, about the year 1433 writing-quills
were so scarce at Venice, that it was with great difficulty men of
letters could procure them. We learn at any rate, that the well-known
Ambrosius Traversarius, a monk of Camaldule, sent from Venice to his
brother, in the above year, a bunch of quills, together with a letter,
in which he said, “They are not the best, but such as I received in
a present. Show the whole bunch to our friend Nicholas, that he may
select a quill; for these articles are indeed scarcer in this city
than at Florence[1239].” This Ambrosius complains likewise, that at
the same period he had hardly any more ink, and requested that a small
vessel filled with it might be sent to him[1240]. Other learned men
complain also of the want of good ink, which they either would not or
did not know how to make. Those even who deal in it seldom know of what
ingredients it is principally composed.
[The softness of quill pens and the constant trouble required to
mend them naturally led to the search for some substitute. Metals
have supplied this, and the manufacture of metallic pens now gives
occupation to an immense number of persons. Steel and other metallic
pens have long been made occasionally[1241], but were not extensively
used on account of their stiffness; this was remedied by Mr. Perry,
who, in 1830, introduced the use of apertures between the shoulder
and the point. Numerous other improvements have been made, the metals
have all had a trial, and pens can now be obtained of almost every
form and quality. Perhaps the most perfect and durable, although the
most expensive, are those in which the pen is made of gold, with
a nib of osmium and iridium. The total quantity of steel annually
employed in the manufacture of pens has been estimated at 120 tons,
from which upwards of 200,000,000 pens are produced. One Birmingham
manufacturer employed in 1838, 300 persons in making steel pens. They
are also extensively manufactured in London and Sheffield. When first
introduced, steel pens were eight shillings a gross; they afterwards
fell to four shillings a gross, and now they are procured at Birmingham
for fourpence a gross[1242]!]