Lead pencils were used for sketching and taking ephemeral notes from the 9th century onwards Biddle , ; from the late 11th century, lines were ruled in lead Biddle , The small lead pencil is by far the commonest object covered in this guide.
The lines on a page were ruled between holes, pricked through several sheets at once. The parchment-pricker is thought to have been used for this.
Styli, pencils and parchment-prickers are therefore significant objects, both in showing literacy and in helping us understand more about the actual practice of writing and the production of text. Use PENCIL both for writing leads, and for cylindrical items of lead with a neat cylindrical shape and no eraser see below for details. Styli have a shaft , a point and an eraser.
Sometimes there is a collar between the eraser and the shaft. It is the presence and shape of the eraser that is crucial in defining an object as a stylus, rather than as some other type of pointed artefact such as a pin.
The rod-like shaft connecting these ends is usually surprisingly slender a modern pen or pencil is much thicker and can be decorated. Decoration might also be applied to the eraser; some examples have chip-carved designs, others have ring-and-dot, or applied foil panels. A stylus should be recorded giving a number of specific details. The dimensions should include the total surviving length, with an estimate of original length if the stylus is now bent.
The width of the eraser is needed, and the maximum diameter of the shaft. Check the cross-section of the shaft, and if it is faceted, count the number of facets.
Check the eraser for solder from a missing decorative foil. The stylus was used in the Roman world, was re-introduced in the 7th century, and continued in use until at least the 12th century. It is not always easy to distinguish Roman, early-medieval and medieval styli; some tips are given below. Most styli recorded on the PAS database are made of copper-alloy but examples have also been found in lead, silver, iron and bone.
Biddle , sets out the arguments as to why bone or wood cannot be used for styli; a metal stylus could be warmed enough to erase efficiently, whereas bone or wood could not. This argument, however, does not appear to have found favour with Roman scholars e. Eckardt , Excavated examples of styli, of whatever date, are usually of iron Eckardt , 26; Pestell in Evans and Loveluck , Lead is rarely used for objects that appear to be conventional styli, with an eraser; a possible example comes from a context of c.
See below for writing leads and pencils, which of course have to be made from lead in order to leave a mark. In theory, styli should be common in Roman Britain, where the population was high and literacy was widespread.
Most work on Roman styli has focused on iron examples e. These were pieces of wood, tied together so that they could open and shut. Each piece of wood had a shallow recess that was filled with wax and formed the writing surface. A stylus was used to write on the wax surface. The stylus was usually made of iron but sometimes bronze or bone. It looked something like this:.
The reason why the styluses were made of lead was because the ancient Romans used lead everywhere - it was cheap, plentiful and easy to use. So did ancient Romans use leaden stylus-shaped instruments to write, in the manner of leaving lead marks?
Unfortunately I couldn't find good sources, but there are these:. This page claims that ancient Romans also Egyptians and Greeks used lead discs to mark papyrus:. The ancient Egyptians, and the Greeks and Romans, too, used a small lead disc for ruling guide line on the papyrus to keep the lettering even. The Romans called it a plumbum - Latin for lead.
So from here it's not a terribly big leap in logic to assume that stylus-shaped lead was also used for writing occasionally. The stylus shown below is made for writing, from a sort of lead which I have heard the English call antimony , shaved to a point and inserted into a wooden handle.
I haven't found the primary source, but assuming that's an accurate excerpt, it should suggest that wood-cased lead pencils existed at least in the 16th century.
Don't be distracted by the coincidentally similar date to the discovery of graphite - it took quite a while for the usefulness of graphite at writing, let alone in wood-cased form, to become widespread.
In fact, encasing graphite in wood came much much later, during the 18thth centuries. Early graphite pencils were wrapped in various materials like paper, twigs or string. So was lead used to write in ancient Rome?
Most likely. Did they use lead pencils? It's uncertain, but not unreasonable. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. This led him to creating and patenting the first ever ballpoint pen. In , the first stylus for computing devices was created which marks the beginning of what has now become a staple writing tool in every household and classroom. Major changes have happened throughout the course of history, and as the world adapts to a digital age, styluses have followed in suit.
Today, you can find a vast array of electronic styli for all types of different projects, such as an artist stylus for art endeavors, fine point stylus for detailed drawings and writing, and mesh tips for a natural writing experience. The possibilities are endless and you no longer have to strain your wrist and tap repeatedly on the screen with your finger to complete a task, nor do you have to carve into wax tablets or cave walls.
Shop Lynktec today and harness the benefits of the best electronic stylus available on the market. Stylus pens are used for a lot of things and is been there from a very long time.
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