pen Summary and Overview

[WRITING]

PEN . The instruments with which the characters were formed in the writing of the ancients varied with the materials upon which the letters were to be traced. Upon hard substances, such as stone or metallic plates, a graver of steel was used, the same which Job calls "an iron pen." It is possible that an instrument pointed with diamond, such as glaziers now use, was not unknown, as "the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond; Pens and Writing-Materials. it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars." Jer 17:1. Upon tablets of wax a metallic pen or stylus was employed, having one end pointed to trace the letters, the other broad and flat to erase any erroneous marks by smoothing the wax. Upon paper, linen, cotton, skins, and parchments, it was in very early times common to paint the letters with a hair-pencil brought to a fine point. The reed pen was introduced afterward, and at first used without being split at the point. The reed pen is used by the modern Turks, Syrians, Persians, Abyssinians. Arabs, and other Orientals, as their languages could not be written without difficulty with pens made from quills. A particular kind of knife is used to split the reed. Jer 36:23.