Time is an
endless narrative of daily events and turning points, and with its
passing we experience revolutionary transformations, and the effects
of increased knowledge. For the most part, what we know of the eras
before us, right down to today, comes from recorded words, made up
of symbols or letters—be they fashioned in ink on parchment
or paper, engraved on clay or pottery, or printed on the pages of
newspapers, film scripts, or books. True, much of what has been so
inscribed, or chiseled, was first handed down by “oral tradition,”
but collectively we have come to understand that the physical, material
documenting of events and thoughts is far more likely to maintain
accuracy and validity, than maintaining an account by word-of-mouth.
The never ending flow of books, et alia, continues, chronicling the
past and communicating discoveries and ideas that have changed our
lives. They go on, recording the history of man.
If writing is such an inherently human act,
how did it all begin? The first writing system is generally believed
to  have
been invented in Sumer, in the late 4th millennium BC.
By the late 3rd millennium, archaic cuneiform had developed into
the Ur III stage. Contemporaneously, the Proto-Elamite
script developed into Linear Elamite. The development of Egyptian
hieroglyphs is also parallel in time to that of the Mesopotamian
scripts, and not necessarily independent. The Egyptian proto-hieroglyphic
symbol system developed into archaic hieroglyphs by 3200 BC (Narmer
Palette), and more widespread literacy by the mid 3rd millennium
(Pyramid Texts). Egyptian scribes used a simple straw with a thin
point dipped in a rubbery substance mixed with carbon powder and
vegetable dye, and applied to papyrus, “paper”
made from the pith of the papyrus plant.
After the year 1000 AD, parchment,
a thin paper-like material made from calfskin, goatskin, or—and
primarily—sheepskin (by which it was often referred), was
introduced as a more durable alternative. The term, parchment, is
taken from the name of the town where the process of making it was
perfected, Pergamum, a Greek city in Mysia (later
Anatolia, and today, Turkey). Later still, paper was made from cloth,
and quill pens created, by having a small cut made at the pointed
end of a feather, or plume, enabling the ink to flow smoothly
and evenly, thus forming the basis for modern writing, books, and
all that followed.
In the early
19th century, a wooden straw with a steel nib was used, though at
this time nibs were hand made and therefore costly. Then in 1820,
three Englishmen invented a machine for manufacturing nibs of different
shapes, which could be dipped carefully into ink. Soon scholars all
over Europe were using them. The first fountain pens appeared towards
the end of the 1800s. They were practical and easy to use and they
gained enormous popularity.
On 20 October, 1916, “the first and most important Italian
manufacturer of fountain pens” (as recorded on the certificate
of registration) was established in Florence, or Italian Firenze,
capital city of the region of Tuscany. The new firm was called Tibaldi
& Co. Miraculously, and gratifyingly to all who claim affection,
and even passion, for literature, the written word in general, and
the instruments that make belles lettres possible, Tibaldi
not only survived both the First and Second World Wars, but thrived
between them, despite them, and after the latter. Throughout the twentieth
century, people from all walks of life, be they great writers, or
everyday people wishing to write down their thoughts, have savoured
Tibaldi’s elegant, reliable scrivening instruments.
Writing instruments are a means of recording and communicating our
thoughts. Writing is a way of expressing our very identity. A hundred
years ago, we used a typewriter, today we use a PC, and tomorrow,
who knows? Maybe an electronic device will convert our thoughts into
words; computers already transmute speech. However, when we speak
of handwriting, the image conjured up in our minds is indisputably
one of the classical writing instrument par excellence—a pen,
and, for the purest, a fountain pen. Tibaldi’s Excelsa
Limited Edition encompasses, in appearance and craftsmanship,
the continuum from artistic masterpiece, to refined, technologically
superior utensil.
The twentieth century heralded vast technological innovation in the
field of writing instruments, the market flooding with an abundance
of pens. Some enabled easier writing, while others were veritable
treasures, created with rare materials, worthy of heirloom status
to collect and cherish. Tibaldi pens are at once bejewelled accessories
and works of technological innovation, commemorating or celebrating
historical events, and cultural beliefs and, or myths. The Da
Vinci Code Limited Edition is just such a pen.
Nonetheless, at heart they are all chirographic implements, tools
designed for unerring comfort and endurance. Just like Tibaldi’s
early 20th century pens, they are easily imagined—and indeed
seen—on the desks of some of the world’s most influential
writers, many of whom were born in the country where Tibaldi pens
were conceived.
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