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Besides written inscriptions, dry point drawings occur in European
manuscripts, too, though less frequently than dry point writing. Some
parchment manuscripts contain human and animal heads drawn in dry
point, for example, as well as geometric ornaments.32 on rare occasions
we also find dry point preparatory drawings in illuminated manuscripts.
Brussels, Bibliothèque royale albert 1er, MS 9968–72 (c. 925–950, trier)
contains a dry point draft of an illustration on fol. 91v.33 Vienna, Austrian
national Library, Cod. 4869 (c. 1390/1400, Bohemia) has, on fol. 1v, an
unfinished pen drawing of Paulus sitting at a lectern; the draft of the draw-
ing was done in dry point and parts of it were later traced with ink.34 In
Icelandic manuscripts I found dry point drawings, too. In aM 426 fol., a
paper manuscript from 1670–82,35 the drawing of Grettir the Strong on
fol. 79v was clearly first outlined in dry point, and the impressed contours
on the back of the drawing can still be seen on fol. 79r.
In addition to writing and drawing, styli were used for preparing
manuscripts prior to the text being written, for example to mark the text
area and to draw lines for writing.36 from the earliest times onwards, a
stylus was pressed onto the parchment to draw the lines, but from the
twelfth century onwards we also find lines drawn with lead, and from
the thirteenth century onwards, ink is used too.37 In Icelandic parchment
manuscripts dry point ruling was the most common form of ruling in the
thirteenth century, and after a dip in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
32 Falko Klaes, Mittelalterliche Glossen und Texte aus Trier: Studien zur volkssprachlichen Trierer
Überlieferung von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 11. Jahrhunderts im lateinischen Kontext.
Germanistische Bibliothek 60 (Heidelberg: Winter, 2017), 578.
33 Ibid., 578.
34 Ulrike Jenni and Maria Theisen, Mitteleuropäische Schulen III (ca. 1350-1400): Böhmen,
Mähren, Schlesien, Ungarn, vol. XII Textband of Die illuminierten Handschriften und
Inkunabeln der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, ed. by Gerhard Schmidt. Österreichische
akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Denkschriften CCCXV
(Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen akademie der Wissenschaften, 2004), 122–123. I
thank Maria theisen for drawing my attention to this manuscript.
35 Kristian Kålund (ed.), Katalog over Den arnamagnæanske håndskriftsamling, 2 vols. (Copen-
hagen: Gyldendal, 1889–1894), I 317–318. http://baekur.is/is/bok/000215004/Katalog_
over_den (accessed 7 September 2018).
36 Leslie Webber Jones, “Pricking Manuscripts: the Instruments and their Significance,”
Speculum 21 (1946): 389–403. Jones uses analyses of pricking as evidence for determining
the date and provenance of manuscripts.
37 Karl Löffler and Wolfgang Milde, Einführung in die Handschriftenkunde, Bibliothek des
Buchwesens 11 (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1997), 73.
“HELGa Á ÞESSa LÖ GBÓ K”