When Pens Were First Used

About the year 600 A.D. pens made of quills were introduced. This is shown by the fact that the word penna, a quill, is not found, it is claimed, in any work bearing an earlier date. Previous to that time the word calamus, signifying a reed, was exclusively employed as a designation for the vehicle used in transferring the ink to the parchment or other surface selected by the writers of that early age. Steel pens first came into use in 1803, and about twenty-two years later those composed of gold made their appearance.