> This is not really a conservation query. I would like to have some advice
> from an expert on something I have seen for many years in medieval manuscript
> illuminations.
>
> Many images show a scribe holding two tools, a quill, or something else to
> write with, and a second tool in his left hand. I have asked many people
> about that second tool, and nobody seems to know what it is. Can anyone tell
> me what that second tool is?
>
> It looks like a pen knife, but there is no reason for a scribe to be holding
> such a knife while he is writing. If there is an error in the manuscript, a
> knife could be used to scrape off the ink, but at the point of writing, that
> knife would not be useful. I have heard suggested that the tool is a place
> marker, but again that is not logical. Nor does it seem to have any function
> whatsoever. Is it merely a convention to show that tool, even if it has no
> function? What is it?
>
> Many thanks,
> Sid Berger
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