Iron pen

What the source describes

The stylus sits between writing and tool-making. Chapter VIII groups it with the quill knife and short lance; other chapters use it to engrave characters into handles and wax candles. The editor notes that a prepared quill can substitute for some sacred writing, which is why artavus and stylus become confused in several witnesses.

Historical setting

The Key of Solomon survives as a family of manuscripts rather than one authorial master copy. Instrument names, drawings, preparation details and even which tools appear can differ between witnesses, so this page follows the cited edition and records its variants.

Common uses

It cuts or engraves ritual characters into instrument hilts and candles and supports the book's larger system of prepared writing. Its inclusion under 'weapons' reflects the source's instrument list, not a claim that a pen is used violently.

Form, materials and reconstruction

The shared preparation assigns the iron stylus to the day and hour of Mercury, with its own characters, perfume, and silk storage. Several historical witnesses also prescribe white boxwood and an animal-and-herb tempering mixture. The app records those textual facts but does not reproduce them as a safe or necessary modern recipe.

Element: No fixed element

This source does not assign this particular instrument a fixed element. Its materials or effects should not be turned into an elemental correspondence without a named source.

Sources and variations

Some witnesses allow either a quill pen or iron stylus for sacred characters, and their vocabulary occasionally turns 'stylo' into 'stiletto.' The editor's distinction between writing tool and dagger is followed here.

Primary account used here

Key of Solomon, Book II, Book II, chapters VIII and XII ↗

Further references

• Key of Solomon: introduction and contents ↗Editorial history and an overview of the manuscript-based edition.
• Hebrew Key of Solomon ↗A different witness with its own section on magical instruments and requisites.