The Devil Is In The Detail

[Uncial]

 

At Wartburg in his study, the reformer Martin Luther sat with his quill and inkwell translating the scriptures and the devil came to distract him. The devil said, ‘Mr Luther, how dare you attempt such a monumental task and yet remain a miserable sinner. How dare you keep ploughing forward with this reforming zeal when you have no inner reformation in your soul. Your sins are many, how can you possibly recommend the reform of the whole church without first reforming your own soul? How can a sinner produce a work of great holiness?’

Luther turned in his chair to face the great accuser and said, ‘Here is my quill. Here, take this parchment and list all my many sins.’

A great period of time passed.

The devil turned the parchment to Luther to gaze upon with his many sins both real and imputed listed upon it. ‘Have you written them all?’ asked Luther. ‘Oh yes,’ said the devil, rubbing his hands with great glee. ‘Take up the pen again and write this,’ said Luther to the devil, ‘My sins are many and my transgressions outnumber the very hairs on my head. In my soul dwells no good thing, yet the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin.’ At this the devil raged and barked the list of sins at Luther. Luther said, ‘You are nothing but a chained dog come to try and bite us, but all you can do is bark.’ At this he threw his inkwell at the devil’s head and the devil left him to his peace.

To this day in his well preserved study in Wartburg, tourists are told this tale of Luther’s encounter with the devil to explain the presence of the ancient ink stain on the wall near the door. I am reliably informed that there was another version. After completing the translation of the scriptures Luther attempted to flush out the black ink from his Dilli, but he noticed that the nipple stopped the plunger from going all the way down, thus preventing all the ink from being expelled. He realised with horror that he would never be able to put in a lighter ink and in a rage snapped his pen in two and threw the bottle of ink at the wall. The first story is perhaps more interesting, but as is often the case, the truth is dull.

Anyway, all that has now created a huge build up to a rather plain dip pen. It is a glass pen - my first and possibly my only one. I bought this mainly for testing inks easily and quickly and for the novelty value. The body is black and the tip and the devil’s head are red. It’s a little top heavy to write with and feels like the devil keeps trying to stop you writing nicely. I can get about a line of text, although it fades dramatically as I proceed. Although the tip is alomost entirely flat it does write smoothly with a curious feeling of feed back. You can get a very broad and wet line by holding the pen almost vertical, or a thinner line in the normal writing position. It is priced at €30 and is a limited edition from La Couronne du Comte (fab online service from a brick & mortar store) and can have a red body with a black tip and head. I am sure there are probably less expensive glass dip pens out there, but if you want something for the purposes I stated and with a bit of novelty thrown in then this hits the spot. It comes in a black cardboard box with a red stamped branding and as always, arrives by post wrapped in that beautiful green textured paper and sealed with a ribbon - like a little gift.

If you want a writing sample, head down to the Ink section of the forum and on my Lamy Copper Orange review the picture of the sample of J Herbin's Orange Indien was done with the this pen.

 

[visvamitra]

Nice one.

[hari317]

superb!

[mehandiratta]

THE DEVIL