Like everything to do with medieval manuscript production, you have to make or source it yourself - no trips to local art stores for ready-made supplies. So how did they make paintbrushes? Animal hair (as today) was considered the best type of brush
Theophilus in his twelfth-century treatise, On Diverse Arts, mentions that paintbrushes can be made from the tail of a martin, badger, squirrel, or cat or from the mane of a donkey (bk 2, ch. 17).
Hmmm - I do have plenty of cats ... this is just a small sample
But Cennini provides more better instructions, recommending that you use vair (squirrel) tails. Vair is another name for the Eurasian red squirrel. Its fur was prized in the Middle Ages and used for lining garments. See here for more fur info: cottesimple.com/articles/fur-p…
So we shall follow Cennini's instructions. First of all - I will not be using red squirrel fur. I'm using grey squirrel's tails, that have been culled to allow the red squirrel to re-establish in its natural habitat. I ordered some online (which I accept is not very medieval)
So - here are our ingredients: squirrel tails, scissors, goose feathers, parchment glue, thread, wooden stick and awl
The tails proved extremely exciting for the cats. I turned my back for a minute and one tail had disappeared - found in the jaws of Elijah, who growled at me and would not relinquish his booty
Once retrieved, he promptly stole it again. Then we had a bit of a tug-of-war, which resulted in him being excluded from the paintbrush making. I considered again using cat tails instead of squirrels.
Anyway, to business. Select a nice chunk of tail fur and cut it close to the bone
Wet the fur to make it easier to handle and tie the cut end with a piece of waxed thread. A third hand would be useful here
Now you want to take a feather of the same diameter as your chunk of fur. My normal goose feathers that I cut for quills were too large, but I have supply of smaller ones. Cut about an inch/inch and a half and remove the membrane inside (my cats consider this a tasty treat 🤮)
Now, with the wetted fur, feed it through the cut barrel of the feather, using the awl to poke it though. It should be a snug fit. (I actually needed to find a better feather fit than the one I'd originally chosen)
We're onto the last bit - attaching the wooden handle! Choose a staked wooden stick. I had some gardening ones that proved very useful. Some needed to be whittled further with a knife to fit the barrel
I reheated some parchment glue. I made the glue by boiling parchment scraps for a few hours and collecting the liquid, which dries to a jelly. A few minutes over a candle reliquidifies the glue
Take your wooden stick and coat the sharpened end in the glue, then press into the other end of the feather barrel
Hurrah - a paintbrush! This one had a bit of a kink in it, so I made another one (although they both felt lovely to paint with). Then I made some more because I was having such fun
So, I always like to make clear that I'm not an artist or calligrapher or anything skilled. I like doing this stuff to see how its done - not to make the most elegant thing ever. My hands shake too much when I paint, but these brushes allowed me to make really lovely lines
So that was good fun and I've ended up with a usable product! They are now safely stored away from any thieving felines - which begs the question - did medieval painters have the same problem?! #teachingmanuscripts#medievalstuffwithcats
Let's make some medieval lye (la lye, lye la lye la lye la lye 🎵). Lye is also known as potash or lixivium. It's a strong alkali and the basic ingredient of soap. Yes, the medievals washed! #teachingmanuscripts#medievalpigments
Lye is completely natural and once again nature is completely AMAZING. A big lovely tree sucks up all the nutrients from the soil through its roots (including potassium). Big lovely tree gets cut down and used for firewood 🙁
The wood all burns away and leaves nothing but ashes. BUT - the ashes contain lots of alkali-rich things like potassium and calcium carbonate. You know what's good for getting things clean? Alkali-rich things! (The word alkali comes from the Arabic al-qaly, which means ashes)
I want some alum-tawed thongs for a bookbinding project. Does a search on the internet help? It does not (unless I want a whole animal skin for £££). But I DO have a sheep skin that I salted from last year. So I’m going to make my own #teachingmanuscripts
I cut off some strips from the bottom of the skin and give it a bit of a haircut
I need to rinse all the salt out first in water. I got this skin last October and salted it straight away. It’s been stored all winter in an airtight container, and it looks pretty good 👍
Tyrian (or imperial) purple was by far the most superior colour in the ancient and medieval world, but is very expensive. Mohammed Ghassen Nouira makes Tyrian purple using traditional Phoenician methods, with fantastic results. I hope to work with him soon facebook.com/Pourpre-de-Car…
Orchil purple, obtained from lichens, was a cheaper alternative, and probably used in the Book of Kells. However, it is hard to source and ecologically unwise to do so. Isabella Whitworth has done a lot of work on dyeing textiles with orchil isabellawhitworth.com/2013/09/17/tal…
It’s time for more #medievalstuffwithcats! I made this zodiac illumination. If you want to know a bit more about the process, read on…
The zodiac roundels come from the calendar in British Library, Royal MS 1 D X bl.uk/manuscripts/Vi… (note that some of the roundels are not exactly round)
I decided to do this illumination because I want to start working on larger pieces of parchment. I used 8” x 10” (a bit smaller than A4). This feels like a decent size for a folio, although if we were working in a scriptorium this would be double the size and folded in the centre
2. Quills were probably used before this - but the earliest reference to them is by Isidore of Seville, from his Etymology in the 7th century. Here he is in the Aberdeen Bestiary, writing with a (surprise!) quill abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/ms24/…
3. In book 6.14.3 of his Etymology he writes - Instrumenta scribae calamus et pinna (the scribe’s tools are the reed-pen and the quill). This 12thC copy is a particularly #nuntastic example, written by 8 female scribes from Abbey of Munsterbilsen (BL, Harley MS 3099, ff.1v,45r-v)