528 
PEN. 
and fine ftrokes,-and to write fo long and fo conveniently 
with them, as one can with quills. The life of them, 
however, was not entirely abandoned when people began 
to write with quills, which in every country can be pro¬ 
cured from an animal extremely ufeful in many other re- 
Ipecfts. 
Some aflert, from a paflage of Juvenal, that quills were 
ufed for writing in the time of that poet; but what he 
fays is only a metaphorical exprefiion, fuch as has been 
employed by Horace and various ancient writers. Others 
have endeavoured to prove the antiquity of writing-quills 
from the figure of the goddefs Egeria, who is reprefented 
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 fome 
modern artilt. No drawings in manufcripts, where the 
authors appear with quills, are of great antiquity. 
Among thefe is the portrait of Ariftotle, in a manufcript 
in the library of Vienna, which, as exprefsly mentioned 
at the end, was drawn at Rome in the year 14.57 ; and we 
have great reafon to think that the artift delineated the 
figure for ornamenting his work, not after an ancient 
painting, but from his own imagination. 
If we can give credit to the anonymous author of the 
Hiitory of Conftantius, extracts from which have been 
made known by Adrian de Valois, the ufe 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 Oftrogoths, was fo illiterate and 
ftupid, that during the ten years of his reign he was not 
able to learn to write four letters at the bottom of his 
edidts. For this reafon the four letters were cut for him 
in a plate of gold, and, the plate being laid upon paper, 
he then traced out the ietters with a pen.” The weftern 
empire was governed, almoft about the time of Theodo¬ 
ric, by the emperor Jultin, who alfo could not write, and 
who ufed in the like manner a piece of wood having 
letters cut in it; but with this difference, that, in trac¬ 
ing them out, he caufed his hand to be guided by one of 
his fecretaries. 
The oldeft certain account however known at prefent 
refpedting writing-quills, is a palfage of Ifidore, who died 
in the year 636, and who, among the inftruments employ¬ 
ed for writing, mentions “ reeds and feathers “ Inftru- 
menta fcribse calamus et penna. Ex his enim verba pa- 
ginis infiguntur; fed calamus arboris eft, penna avis, cujus 
acumen dividiturin duo; in toto corpore unitate fervata.” 
Origines, vi. 13. 
Another proof of’ quills being ufed in the fame cen¬ 
tury, is a fmall poem on a writing-pen, to be found in 
. the works of Althelmus, called fometimes alfo Aldhel- 
mus, Adelhemus, and Adelmus. This writer,defcended 
of a noble family, was the firft Saxon who wrote Latin, 
and who made the art of Latin poetry known to his 
countrymen, and infpired them with a tafte for compo- 
fitions of that kind. He died in the year 705. The 
poem is as follows : 
De Penna fcriptoria. 
Me pridem genuit candens onocrotalus albam 
Gutture qui patulo forbet in gurgite lymphas. 
Pergo ad albentes diredto tramite campos, 
Candentique viae veftigia caerula linquo, 
Lucida nigratis fufcans anfraftibus arva. 
Nec fatis eit unum per campos pandere callem ; 
Semita quin potius milleno tramite tendit, 
Quae non errantes ad coeli culmina vexit. 
The author does not, fpeak here of a goofe-quill, but 
of a pelican’s, ( onocrotalus , adopted from the Greek word, 
compounded of oyo?, an afs, and x.pora.Xo, a rattle, from 
the gurgling in the throat or pouch,) which, at any rate, 
may be as good as that of a fwan. 
In the eighth century writing-pens are mentioned by 
Alcuinus,who at that period, in the time of Charlemagne, 
was of lervice in extending literary knowledge.- He 
compofed poetical infcriptiohs for every part of a monas¬ 
tery, among which there is one even for a privy, and ano¬ 
ther for a writing-ftudy. Speaking of the latter, he fays 
that “ no one ought to talk in it, left the pen of the tran- 
fcriber fhould commit a miftake.” 
After the above period, proofs occur which place the 
matter beyond all doubt. Mabillon law a manufcript of 
the Gofpeis, which had been written in the ninth cen¬ 
tury under the reign of St. Louis, in which the evange- 
lifts were reprefented with quills in their hands. The 
fame author mentions a like figure of the eleventh cen¬ 
tury. In the twelfth century, Peter de Clugny, who by 
fcholaftic writers is called Veneruhilis, and who died in 
1157, wrote to a friend, exhorting him to affume the pen 
inftead of the plough, and to tranfcribe inftead of tilling 
land. In fliort, 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 Ifidore to lignify writing-pens, where, for want of 
other proofs, we underftand reeds. 
Notwitliftanding the great advantage which quill-pens 
have over reeds for writing, the latter however feem to 
have continued long in ufe even with the former. Men 
of letters, well verfed in diplomatics, allure us, from com¬ 
paring manufcripts, that writing-reeds were ufed along, 
with quills in the eighth century, at leaft in France; and 
that the latter firft began to be common in the ninth. 
The papal afts, and thole of fynods, muft however have 
been written with reeds much later. In convents they 
w'ere retained for texts and initials, while, for fmall 
writing, quills were every-where employed. 
We can allow little credit to a conjecture fupported 
merely by a fimilarity of the ftrokes in writing, becaufe 
it is probable that people at firft would endeavour to w-rite 
in as ftrong and coarfe a manner with quills as had been 
before done with reeds, in order that the writing might 
not feem much different from what was ufual ; and with 
quills one can produce writing both coarfe and fine. 
Meiners, however, refers to a paflage in a letter of Reuch- 
lin, which removes all doubt on the fubjeCt. When this 
worthy man, to whom pofterity is fo 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 fupplied with the moft common necelfaries by 
Pirkbeimer. Among other articles the latter fent to 
him, in the year 1520, writing-materials,good paper, pen¬ 
knives, and, inftead of peacocks-feathers which he had 
requefted, the belt fwan-quills. That nothing might be 
wanting, lie added alfo proper reeds, of fo excellent a 
fort, that Reuchlin confidered them to be Egyptian or 
Cnidian. Thefe reeds at that period muft have been 
fcarce and in great requeft, as it appears by fome letters 
of Erafmus to Reuchlin, that the former received three 
reeds from the latter, and exprefled a with that Reuchlin, 
when he procured more, would fend fome of them to a 
learned man in England, who was a common friend to 
both. 
Whatever may have been the caufe, about the year 
14.33 writing-quills were fo fcarce at Venice, that it was 
with great difficulty men of letters could procure them. 
We learn at any rate, that the well-known Ambrofius 
Traverfarius, a monk of Camaldtile, fent from Venice to 
his brother, in the above year, a bunch of quills, together 
with a letter, in which he faid, “ They are not the belt, 
but fuch as I received in a prefent. Show the whole 
bunch to our friend Nicholas, that he may feleiSt a quill ; 
for thefe articles are indeed fcarcer in this city than at 
Florence.” 
“Had the ancients been acquainted with the art of 
converting quills into writing-pens,” fays Mr. Profeffor 
Beckmann, “ they would undoubtedly have dedicated to 
Minerva, not the owl, but the goofe.” We think fo too; 
yet there are fome men among us, as likely to rival the 
goofe in underftanding as in ufefulnefs, who prefer writ¬ 
ing, or trying to write, with an iron pen, or a fteel pen, 
or 
