This webpage demonstrates some of the tools used by writers, scriveners, and scribes, both by showing illustrations of them at work, as well as by linking to examples of the tools (ink containers, pens, pen-boxes & writing boxes, and writing-desks) in museum collections and other websites with related artifacts.

(Inkhorns, inkwells, and other ink containers have been moved to their own linkspage.)

• Hugo pictor, Jerome's Commentary on Isaiah (Bodl. 717, fol. 287v), late 11th century
• The tower scriptorium Of Tábara: the scribe and illuminator lay out their folios, while a novice trims parchment (PML M.429, fol. 184v, 183), c. 1220
• Blanche of Castile and King Louis IX of France and Author Dictating to a Scribe, Moralized Bible (PML M.240, fol. 8), c. 1230
• Peter Comestor (fol. 1) and St. John (fol. 192), Bible Historiale (BNF Fr. 155), beginning of the 14th century
• A scribe copies from an exemplar, L'Estoire del Saint Graal (British Library MS Royal 14 E. III, fol. 6v), c. 1300-1315
• Peter Comestor (fol. 1), Moses (fol. 105), and Ezekiel (fol. 224), Bible Historiale (BNF Fr. 156), first half of the 14th century
• Jerome (fol. 297v), St. Paul (fol. 484), St. James the Lesser (fol. 498), St. John (fol. 501v), and St. John (fol. 506), Bible Historiale (BNF Fr. 152), 14th century
• Gautier Map in the Death of King Arthur (BNF Fr. 122, fol. 272), 1344
• Philosophy, The City of God (BNF Fr. 170, fol. 334v), fourth quarter of the 14th century
• Machaut (BNF Fr. 1584, fol. Fv), c. 1377
• Tailor in the Liber de Moribus hominum (BNF Fr. 1166, fol. 34), end of the 14th century or beginning of the 15th century (note inkhorn and pencase hanging on belt)
But I, alas, that am of wytte but dulle
And have no knowyng of suche mater
For to discryve and wryte at the fulle
The wofull compleynt which that ye shul here,
But even like as doth a skryvener
That can no more what that he shal write
But as his maister beside dothe endyte



A Complaynte of a Lovers Lyfe, ll. 190-196

• St. Matthew (fol. 426), St. Mark (fol. 440), St. Luke (fol. 451), St. John (fol. 478v), St. Paul (fol. 486v), St. James the Lesser (fol. 525), St. John (fol. 529), and St. John (fol. 531), Bible Historiale (BNF Fr. 159), 14th-15th century
• Boccaccio (fol. 4v), Herophile (fol. 31), Demophile (fol. 37), and Cornificia (fol. 126), De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 598), beginning of the 15th century
• St. James the Lesser (fol. 585v; note that the bag is a pilgrim’s scrip), St. Peter (fol. 586v), St. Peter (fol. 588), St. John (fol. 589), and St. Jude (fol. 591), Bible Historiale (BNF Fr. 10), beginning of the 15th century
• Sir John de Mandeville writing, Travels (British Library Add. 24189, fol. 4), c. 1410
• Several images in Les cas des nobles hommes et femmes (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève MS 1128, c. 1425-1449) imagine Boccaccio in the company of the characters he is writing about; see fols. 10v, 14, 24v, 36, 44v, 55, 101, 105, 112v, 182v, 187, 196, 206, 223, 223v, 233, 260v, 271v, 278v, 283v, 308, 319, and 338
• Johanes, Mendel Hausbuch (Amb. 317.2, fol. 62r), 1438
• A copyist in his workshop from Mare historiarum (BNF Latin 4915, fol. 1), c. 1440-1455
• St. Jerome by Jan van Eyck, 1442
• St. Martin, St. Barbara, and St. Luke by Stefan Lochner, 1445-1450
• A copyist in his workshop, Histoire des nobles princes de Hainaut (BNF Fr. 20127, fol. 2v), mid-15th century
• Scribal apprenticeship, Facta et dicta memorabilia (BNF Fr. 287, fol. 1), second part of the 15th century
• A scribe and his apprentice, Chroniques de Hainault (BNF Fr. 20128, fol. 1), c. 1450-1475
• Laurent de Premierfait writes a translation in The Decameron (BNF Fr. 129, fol. 4), third quarter of the 15th century
• Boccaccio, De casibus (BNF Fr. 130, fol. 233v), third quarter of the 15th century
• The author Titus Livius (or the translator Pierre Bersuire?) at work, Ab urbe condita (BNF Fr. 273, fol. 7), c. 1475
• Flavius Josephus in The Wars of the Jews (BNF Fr. 15, fol. 41v), fourth quarter of the 15th century
• St. Matthew by Gabriel Maelesskircher, 1478
• St. Augustine by Sandro Botticelli, 1480
• St. Jerome in his Study (detail) by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1480
• Good images of inkhorn and penner in a Portrait of a young man, early 1480s; for more heart-shaped books, see this 15th century book of hours, the Chansonnier of Jean de Montchenu (chansonnier cordiforme), this 1580 prayerbook for Anna, wife of Elector Augustus, etc.
• St. Jerome in his scriptorium, c. 1480-1490
• Inkhorn and penner of St. Ambrosius, from an altarpiece at Kremsmünster, c. 1490-1500
• An inkhorn and penner in 12-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple (part of the altarpiece at the Church of St. Nicholas in Presov, Slovakia)
• Inkhorn, penner, and writing-slope of St. Jerome by Georg Stäber, c. 1495-1500
• Carmenta, De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 599, fol. 22v), 15th-16th century
• Ovid's Heroides (BNF Fr. 873), 15th-16th century: Oenone (fol. 27v), Hypsipyle (fol. 35v), Dido (fol. 42v), Canace (fol. 68v), Medea (fol. 74v), Hypermestra (fol. 90v), Helen (fol. 106v), Hero (fol. 125v), Acontius (fol. 133v), Cydippe (fol. 140v)
• Vision of St. Augustine by Vittore Carpaccio, 1502
• An inkhorn and penner in Jesus praying at the Mount of Olives from an altarpiece at Passau, c. 1510-1515
• St. Jerome in his Study by Albrecht Dürer, 1511
• St. Gregory (an open penner next to his inkhorn) from an altarpiece at Grades, Austria, c. 1515-1520
• Signboard for the schoolmaster Myconius by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1516
• Signboard for the schoolmaster Myconius by Ambrosius Holbein, 1516
• Portrait of Erasmus by Quentin Massys, 1517
• A good view of an inkhorn, penner, and pen in a painting of a girl writing, c. 1520
• Saint Paul Writing by Pier Francesco Sacchi, 1520s
• Portrait of Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1523
• Portrait of Laura Pisani, c. 1525
• St. Mary Magdalene at her writing desk, first half of the 16th century
• Portrait of Sir Thomas Godsalve and his son John (detail) by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1528
• Portrait of Georg Gisze by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1532
• Portrait of Dirk Tybis by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533
• Portrait of Thomas Cromwell by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533
• Vlrich Huber makes inkhorns and penners, Mendel Hausbuch (Amb. 317.2, fol. 153v), 1535
• Self-portrait of Romanino, 1535-1540
• The Tax Collectors by Marinus van Reymerswale
• The Tax Collectors by Marinus van Reymerswale
• A good view of an inkhorn, penner, and pen in Two Tax Gatherers by Marinus van Reymerswaele, c. 1540
• Self-portrait of Simon Bening, 1550s
• The scribes' room in the Schwazer Bergbuch (Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum Cod. Dipl. 856, fol. 121v), 1556
• The scribes' room in the Schwazer Bergbuch (ÖNB 10852, fol. 85v), 1561; another scribe (fol. 114v)
• Peter Schmid makes inkwells, Landauer Hausbuch (Amb. 279.2, fol. 45v), 1565
• Taddeo in the Sistine Chapel Drawing Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment' and Taddeo in the Belvedere Court in the Vatican, Drawing the Laocoön by Federico Zuccaro, c. 1590
• Selection of writing tools, 16th-17th century, including a turned wood pounce pot, an inkwell, an hour glass, and a modern reproduction of a 16th century letter
• Portrait of Sir Thomas Overbury, 1613

See also How to make a quill pen, and these links on medieval pens and their use.

• Writing-quills, c. 1560-1570
• Goose-feather quill pen (also here), 1633
• Quill pen from the Gunnister find, late 17th century

• A Fatimid carved ebony and ivory penbox with bronze mounts, Egypt or Sicily, c. 12th century
• Pen box, inlaid with a verse from the Qur'an and symbols of the planets and the zodiac, Mosul, northern Iraq, c. 1230-1250
• Pen box, brass inlaid with gold and silver, 13th century western Iran or northern Iraq
• Pen box in cast brass decorated with astrological scenes, western Iran, 1281
• Writing casket from the workshop of Severo da Ravenna, c. 1525; interior divided into compartments for storing writing implements and blotting-sand

• Writing desk made in the court workshops of Henry VIII, c. 1525; see also this video
• Writing-cabinet (also here, here, and here), c. 1570
• Table desk, probably made in Southwark c. 1580-1620
• Duke of Urbino Writing Desk, in walnut with engraved ivory, c. 1600