Basic Scribes Equipment

Rowan Perigrynne

Paper

Before paper was common, medieval scribes used parchment or vellum, made by scraping down skins (usually sheep, calf or goat) until they were fine and even, then preparing the surface by rubbing with ground pumice or chalk. Vellum is still the nicest surface to work on and is easy to correct, but it is very expensive. "Parchmentine" is a good substitute (and is available cheaply from the College), as are high quality rag papers. An A4 pad of parchment is a nice way to practice, but the paper is too light for permanent work. Any paper will do for sketching ideas and trying our your pen.

If you do award scrolls for the College, it will supply the pre-printed Award of Arms blanks on heavy quality paper.

Drawing

For drawing guide lines and sketching, medieval scribes used a small piece of lead or silver, often in a bone or quill holder, or scribed lines into the parchment with a stylus. They also used rulers of wood, ivory or bone You will need a pencil (propelling pencils mean you never have to find your sharpener again) and a ruler with clear accurate markings. For drawing circles, medieval scribes used a compass - still the best tool for the job!

Medieval erasers for lead and silver were made of tree gum and these are still available. A clean white plastic eraser is a good substitute for our pencils

Writing

The medieval scribe used a quill pen cut from the shaft of a feather (usually goose) with the feather part stripped off. The quills were treated with heat to harden them, then cut to shape with a pen knife. Quills are still lovely to write with but need repairing (trimming) every page or so. Dip pens are a good modern substitute and come with replaceable nibs and ink reservoirs. Depending on the style, you will need nibs of different types and sizes. A good starting place would be an Osmoroid or Mitchell holder and round hand nibs in sizes 3 and 4, plus reservoirs. You will also need cloth or paper towel to deal with spills and to clean you pen (rinse it at the end of your session).

Medieval inks were made from oak galls, iron salts, lamp black and other substances, stored in a horn, or an inkwell made of horn or metal. You will need a dense black ink made for calligraphy (not Quink or art inks). Calli and Rotring are both good brands, and there are several inexpensive Chinese inks available in large bottles for a good price. Ink is easiest to use from a small bottle big enough to fit your pen into, with a tight lid. For rubrication (writing in red) you will not use inks at all, but thinned down red paint (see Painting below).

To erase ink, medieval scribes used to scrape back the vellum with a knife, smooth the surface and write again. This still works on Parchmentine (use a rounded art knife), but on other papers, you must be creative or start again.

Painting

Medieval scribes used brushes made from fine hairs, bound and inserted into a quill holder or attached to wooden handles. You will need several art brushes with fine points - one each of sizes 000, 0 and 1 make a good start.

Their paints were pigments made from minerals and plants, ground up in an egg or gum medium to form a rich, matt, opaque tempera, stored in small dishes or shells. An excellent modern substitute is gouache, which is an opaque watercolour. I recommend Windsor and Newton gouaches - a basic palette would be Cadmium Red Pale, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Ultramarine Blue, Zinc White, Lamp Black, Purple Lake, Middle Green. These are expensive, but will last you for many, many years. A small set of student watercolours will provide a nice range of browns, ochres and so on which are useful for miniatures (and save having to mix so many colours). Paints can be squeezed into dishes or shells, mixed with water and allowed to dry, then wet and used as needed.

You will also need some little dishes or shells to mix shades and colours, water to add to colours and to wash your brush in (2 pots), plus cloth or paper towel to dry your brush on.

Gilding

Medieval scribes used real gold, beaten down until very thin, stuck on with glair made from egg white, then burnished with a dog tooth or haematite burnisher. They also used "shell" gold, made from fine ground particles in a gum medium, like a superior gold paint, for fine details.

Real gold leaf is available in books of 25 sheets, both as Transfer leaf (lightly stuck to a sheet of paper ) and Loose leaf (like it sounds). Transfer leaf is the easiest to use; loose leaf gives a richer effect. You can also buy fake leaf (called Dutch Gold or Schlage Gold), which gives the best non-gold result and is much cheaper. To use leaf, you also need a gilding medium such as German Gilding Mix, which is painted on (using a brush reserved for this task) and allowed to get tacky, before you apply the leaf. To polish the gold once it has dried you need a burnisher.

As an alternative to gold leaf (which sounds more complicated than it is), you can use gold gouache. This has a grainy appearance rather than gleaming, but is certainly better than nothing and is also useful in place of shell gold for fine highlights. You can still buy shell gold, but it is very expensive.

Books

In addition to equipment, you also need access to examples of the medieval and renaissance styles of illumination we are striving to copy - the more, the better. There are also a number of useful books about the practice of calligraphy and illumination, as well as some very interesting ones about and how scribes lived and worked.

Medieval Calligraphy, by Mark Drogin.

ISBN 0-86043-200-9 (Hardback) now also available in Dover

If you want to practice calligraphy and can only afford one book, this is it. It gives background, history, info on materials, period examples and very clear instructions on how each letter is formed.

Illumination for Calligraphers, by Marie Lynskey

ISBN 0-7225-2105-7 (Hardback) Thorston Publishers 1990

An excellent book with lots of step by step instructions and pictures on layout, painting, gilding, etc.

Medieval Craftsmen: Scribes & Illuminators, by Christopher de Hamel

ISBN 0-7141-2041-9 (Softcover) British Museum Press 1992

A wonderful insight into the world of the medieval scribe, tools and materials, working conditions, etc with many period examples.

There are countless books now available on medieval illuminated manuscripts, including reproductions of Books of Hours and other complete works.

Sources

Good art stores are the obvious place to start - try under Artist’s Materials in the Yellow Pages. Stores which sell to art students (often found near technical colleges and the like) usually have the best prices.

Some Sydney suggestions:

Oxford Art Supplies 221-223 Oxford St, Darlinghurst. 9360 4066

City Art & Drafting Supplies 184 Elizabeth St, Sydney. 9281 5378

Both stock Gouache, gold leaf, good paper, pens, ink

Good prices on most the basics

Will’s Quills 166 Victoria Ave, Chatswood 9419 2112

Gold leaf, gilding mix, gesso, pens, ink, paper, vellum, beautiful and expensive reproduction manuscript books

Some supplies are expensive, but this is the place to buy hard to get stuff and they do mail order.

Other ideas

Most "crystal dolphin" type stores sell polished stones cheaply - best price for pieces of haematite!

Abbey’s Books stocks Dover books, British Museum books and many others of interest.

Max Elle’s and other "discount" book shops stock lots of art books - always worth a browse

You library may be another great source!