Penknife (canivet)
32 to 90 €
A canivet is one of the indispensable tools of the scriptorium. This small, very sharp knife serves every purpose: cutting quills and reed pens, scraping parchment or holding it down with its point, etc.
Very common in illuminations, it is one of the markers of the status of the scribe or copyist. Although certain models recur often, it varies greatly in size and shape.
Nevertheless, as with any symbolic tool, iconography greatly exaggerates its size.
- Materials
- Acier XC75, bois de cerf, ébène, os...
- Periods
- Antiquity, Merovingians and Carolingians, Middle Ages, 12th-13th centuries (Crusades), Hundred Years' War and 15th century, Renaissance, 17th century, 18th century