Medieval Brushes

To go along with hand but quill pens, I've started to do research and practical application into making brushes.  It's been something I've wanted to do for a few years now, but thanks to a couple friends, it became a priority because we were going to be meeting again to try out hands at making a few brushes.

Many of the period treatises I have translated copies of, talk about using brushes for various activities.  These activities are such as writing, laying down gypsum, pigments, or paints.  So far only two of these treatises talk about what materials to use or even how to make a brush.  Theophilus in his book On Divers Arts points out several different animal hairs to use for the bristles, and Cennini in his Il Libro dell' Arte covers how to make a brush.

“Make yourself two or three brushes out of hair from the tail of a marten, badger, squirrel, or cat or from the mane of a donkey.” – Theophilus ‘On Divers Arts’ p. 62

“You should also have [brushes of] hog-bristles, three or four fingers thick, bound in the middle with iron…” – Theophilus ‘On Divers Arts’ p. 113

“In our profession we have to use two kinds of brushes: minever brushes, and hog’s-bristle brushes.” – Cennini ‘Il libro dell’ arte’

Cennino Cennini's description on how to make a minever hair brush:

    In our profession we have to use two kinds of brushes: minever brushes, and hog’s-bristle brushes. The minever ones are made as follows. Take minever tails, for no others are suitable; and these tails should be cooked, and not raw: the furriers will tell you that. Take one of these tails: first pull the tip out of it, for those are the long hairs; and put the tips of several tails together, for out of six or eight tips you will get a soft brush good for gilding on panel, that is, wetting down with it, as I will show you later on. Then go back to the tail, and take it in your hand; and take the straightest and firmest hairs out of the middle of the tail; and gradually make up little bunches of them; and wet them in a goblet of clear water, and press them and squeeze them out, bunch by bunch, with your fingers. Then trim them with a little pair of scissors; and when you have made up quite a number of bunches, put enough of them together to make up the size you want your brushes: some to fit in a vulture’s quill; some to fit in a goose’s quill; some to fit in a quill of a hen’s or doves feather. When you have made these types, putting them together very evenly, with each tip on a line with the other, take thread or waxed silk, and tie them up will with two bights or knots, each type by itself, according to the size you want the brushes. Then take your feather quill which corresponds to the amount of hairs tied up, and have the quill open, or cut off, at the end; and put these tied-up hairs into this tube or quill. Continue to do this, so that some of the tips stick out, as long as you can press them in from outside, so that the brush will come out fairly stiff; for the stiffer and shorter it is the better and more delicate it will be. Then take a little stick of maple or chestnut, or the other good wood; and make it smooth and neat, tapered like a spindle, and large enough to fit tightly in this tube; and have it nine inches long. And there you have an account of how a minever brush ought to be made. It is true that minever brushes of several type are needed: some for gilding; some for working with the flat of the brush, and these should be trimmed off a bit with the scissors, and stropped a little on the porphyry slab to limber them up a little; one brush ought to be pointed, with a perfect tip for outlining; and another ought to be very, very tiny, for special uses and very small figures.