Penners

A penner is a sort of case used to contain pens and related scribal tools, and is often connected to an inkhorn.

For a more detailed view of a penner and how it was constructed, see Purses in Pieces: Archaeological Finds of Late Medieval and 16th-Century Leather Purses, Pouches, Bags and Cases in the Netherlands.

Some additional webpages on penners: Scribal Tools: The Penner & Inkhorn, Personal Items, Randy Asplund’s Scribe and Illuminator Tools.

• Le Jeu des échecs moralisé (University of Chicago Library 392, image 46), c. 1365
• Tailor in the Liber de Moribus hominum (BNF Fr. 1166, fol. 34), end of the 14th century or beginning of the 15th century
• Boccaccio, De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 598, fol. 4v), beginning of the 15th century
• St. James the Lesser (fol. 585v), St. Peter (fol. 586v), St. Peter (fol. 588), St. John (fol. 589), and St. Jude (fol. 591), Bible Historiale (BNF Fr. 10), beginning of the 15th century
• Pen case and lid, made in Italy in the 15th century
• Les cas des nobles hommes et femmes (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève MS 1128, c. 1425-1449), fols. 10v, 14, 24v, 44v, 55, 101, 105, 112v, 182v, 196, 206, 223v, and 338
• Gulfardo borrows money from Guasparruolo in the Decameron (BNF Arsenal 5070, fol. 276v), 1432
• Johanes, Mendel Hausbuch (Amb. 317.2, fol. 62r), 1438
• A copyist in his workshop from Mare historiarum (BNF Latin 4915, fol. 1), c. 1440-1455
• St. Jerome by Jan van Eyck, 1442
• St. Martin, St. Barbara, and St. Luke by Stefan Lochner, 1445-1450
• A copyist in his workshop, Histoire des nobles princes de Hainaut (BNF Fr. 20127, fol. 2v), mid-15th century
• The author Titus Livius (or the translator Pierre Bersuire?) at work, Ab urbe condita (BNF Fr. 273, fol. 7), c. 1475
• St. Luke by Gabriel Mälesskircher, 1478
• Detail from St. Jerome in his Study by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1480
• Portrait of a young man, early 1480s
• Detail from St. Ambrosius in an altarpiece at Kremsmünster, c. 1490-1500
• Detail from 12-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple (part of the altarpiece at the Church of St. Nicholas in Presov, Slovakia)
• Detail from St. Jerome by Georg Stäber, c. 1495-1500
• Carmenta, De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 599, fol. 22v), 15th-16th century
• Ovid's Heroides (BNF Fr. 873), 15th-16th century: Oenone (fol. 27v), Hypsipyle (fol. 35v), Dido (fol. 42v), Canace (fol. 68v), Medea (fol. 74v), Hypermestra (fol. 90v), Helen (fol. 106v), Hero (fol. 125v), Acontius (fol. 133v), Cydippe (fol. 140v)
• Detail from Jesus praying at the Mount of Olives from an altarpiece at Passau, c. 1510-1515
• St. Gregory on an altarpiece at Grades, Austria, c. 1515-1520
• Signboard for the schoolmaster Myconius by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1516
• St. Mary Magdalene at her writing desk, first half of the 16th century
• Portrait of Sir Thomas Godsalve and his son John by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1528
• A young woman writing, c. 1530
• Vlrich Huber makes inkhorns and penners, Mendel Hausbuch (Amb. 317.2, fol. 153v), 1535
• The Tax Collectors by Marinus van Reymerswale
• Two Tax Gatherers, c. 1540
• The Money Changers by a follower of Marinus van Reymerswaele, c. 1548
• A scribe, the Schwazer Bergbuch (ÖNB 10852, fol. 114v), 1561
• A brass pen-case (“Cylinder Sciotheriucs”) in the Augsburg Art Cabinet, engraved with the year 1629. A similar case appears in this detail from Holbein’s portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve (“The Ambassadors”).
• A collection of early writing implements, penners & accessories includes a few penners from the middle of the 17th century.