What was used for writing in 15th century Europe?

Question

What sort of pens/quills would be used?

Would paper, cover and bindings be readily available?

Answer 1

The first issue, it almost goes without saying, is that in the 1400s it was still a fairly rare thing to know how to read and write, and in fact reading and writing were essentially two separate skills. There were many, many scribes during the medieval era whose job it was to copy down ancient texts and who often had no idea what, exactly, it was that they were copying down.

Regarding paper, this was a Chinese invention which was passed over to the West in the 1200s. By the 1400s it would have been fairly well known, and there were probably paper mills in or around most of the larger towns, but it was by no means as ubiquitous as it is today. For documents which were supposed to last a long time you still would have wanted to use parchment and/or vellum, which are made with animal skin instead of wood pulp and as such are much more expensive and rare.

As for putting ink to paper, yes, you're right on that they would have used quills.

Quill pens were the instrument of choice during the medieval era due to their compatibility with parchment and vellum. Prior to this the reed pen had been used, but a finer letter was achieved on animal skin using a cured quill. Other than written text, they were often used to create figures, decorations, and images on manuscripts, although many illuminators and painters preferred fine brushes for their work. The variety of different strokes in formal hands was accomplished by good penmanship as the tip was square cut and rigid, exactly as it is today with modern steel pens.

Source

Answer 2

In 15th century Europe the standard pen was the quill pen. There is a very famous book "Il Libro dell' Arte" by Cennino d'Andrea Cennini. It describes writing and painting technology in the 15th century completely. You can buy it on Amazon.

Quill pens were cut from the feather of a bird like a goose using a knife. The tip of the pen is dipped in ink. It works the same way as a modern fountain pen.

Common paper was made from a pulp of hemp and linen and was similar to modern construction paper. Paper was also made from cotton, but that tended to be more fragile and less used. On the other end of the spectrum was parchment, the skin of a sheep, which was used for deeds and other permanent or archival documents. Very fine "vellum" was a skin from a baby sheep (a lamb). It was used for books for the elite or as a writing material for very rich people.