21-09-2025, 07:43 PM
To be clear, the compass is not the question. The Greek used compasses for calculation as well as drawing, since at least 2500 years ago. The Egyptians and Babylonians may have been using them many centuries before that. The question is whether and how people drew in ink with a compass in the 1400s.
And that is how the "modern" ink point for the compass works. It has two blades ~5 mm wide separated by a gap of ~1 mm, where a drop of ink is held by surface tension, aka capillary action (as in a quill or metal pen). The two blades come together at the tip, which is rounded in the direction of travel but sharp in the radial direction. As the tip is dragged over the paper, the ink is pulled out of it (again by capillary action) and replenished by the reservoir further up. That is good for several inches of even tracing, before the attachment has to be dipped into the inkwell again.
The hardest part of the modern attachment is the screw that regulates the width of the trace. Deleting that screw means that the implement can draw lines of a certain fixed width only. That would have been good enough for diagrams in medieval manuscripts. Such fixed-width compass pen would have been well within the capabilities of European toolmakers of the time. (Unlike steel pens for hand writing, whose central slit is much harder to make.)
So the question still is: were such implements actually available to scribes in that time frame?
All the best, --jorge
(21-09-2025, 08:14 AM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.No matter which compass you use, the problem is always the ink. Without a reservoir that dispenses ink evenly, you don't stand a chance.
And that is how the "modern" ink point for the compass works. It has two blades ~5 mm wide separated by a gap of ~1 mm, where a drop of ink is held by surface tension, aka capillary action (as in a quill or metal pen). The two blades come together at the tip, which is rounded in the direction of travel but sharp in the radial direction. As the tip is dragged over the paper, the ink is pulled out of it (again by capillary action) and replenished by the reservoir further up. That is good for several inches of even tracing, before the attachment has to be dipped into the inkwell again.
Quote:I don't think a fine smith/compass smith (specialist in measuring tools) could have made anything else [than a pencil holder].
The hardest part of the modern attachment is the screw that regulates the width of the trace. Deleting that screw means that the implement can draw lines of a certain fixed width only. That would have been good enough for diagrams in medieval manuscripts. Such fixed-width compass pen would have been well within the capabilities of European toolmakers of the time. (Unlike steel pens for hand writing, whose central slit is much harder to make.)
So the question still is: were such implements actually available to scribes in that time frame?
All the best, --jorge
