A graphite pencil for writing and drawing consists of a lead core inserted or glued into a wooden holder. During the Renaissance, artists were already using an elongated writing instrument alongside chalk, ruddle, and charcoal: a pointed wire made of an alloy of lead and tin, curved at the top – a precursor of the pencil. In 1540 the Italian calligrapher Giovambattista Palatino provided an illustration of “all the tools a good scribe uses” – including dividers and metal pens, but no pencils [3. 49]. In 1562, in his Sarepta oder Bergpostill, a collection of 16 sermons preached …