This week's word: probatio pennaeA phrase, a name, a jingle, or any other form of doodling that results when a scribe tests a new or a recalcitrant quill, stylus or calamus. The Latin phrase translates literally as "a testing" or "proving of the quill," but, palaeographically, denotes the writing which results from this testing, not the action itself. Probationes pennae can occasionally be of some value in heuristic investigations, as scribes have a natural propensity for using their own names or that of the place where they were working as suitable test phrases.
From: Some Notes on Palaeography, Codicology, and Diplomatics (T.S. Haskett 2001)
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