VMs: Re: John M. Manly's 1922 Harpers article...

[Greg Stachowski <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Nick Pelling wrote:

> To answer my own question, plus a few others I didn't think of as well:-

>          To sharpen the quill, the writer needed a special knife
>          (origins of the term "pen-knife".) Beneath the writer's
>          high-top desk was a coal stove to cause the ink to dry
>          as fast as possible.

I remember watching a program on TV in the UK some ten years ago in which
the host (I forget who) demonstrated various techniques used in preparing
mediaeval manuscripts. Among others he showd how to prepare vellum, use
gold leaf and how to make quills. All I can remember is that the quill nib
was hardened in hot sand (heated in a pot over a flame). An untreated
quill is too soft and bends and buckles very easily - I tried making some
at the time from goose feathers found in the park. There was also
something (I forget its technical name now) which was a short cylinder
with a groove which was placed in the tube just behind the nib to stop the
ink running out too quickly. The same thing is visible in modern fountain
pens if you take the nib assembly apart.

Greg

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