AcknowledgementsIntroduction: the challenge of drawing in metalpointThe metalpoint drawing: material and techniqueRecent historiographical studiesThe challengeAncient drawing and writing materialsMetalpoint drawing in classical antiquity?The physical evidence for line drawing in classical antiquityModern interpretations of the ancient evidenceThe writing tablet: materials, formats and functionsAncient styli: physical evidenceDrawing and writing in metalpoint in the Middle AgesDrawing - painting - writingIconography of Christianity triumphantArtefactual evidence for marking with metal styli on tabletsTextual evidence for marking with metalpointUnderdrawing, rulings, and other markings in leadpoint, graphite and hardpoint (blind stylus)RulingsMarginal drawings and compilation notesUnderdrawingsMarking and supporting materials used in pattern booksThe evidence of artists' technical manuals and recipe booksThe metalpoint in Trecento and early Quattrocento ItalyThe liminal space of Trecento artMetalpoint drawing in the Italian TrecentoPresentation drawingsCopy/contract drawingDrawings of contested functionPreparatory studiesDrawings made directly on the primary supportWritten evidence for metalpoint drawing: Cennino Cennini's Il Libro dell'arteCennini's comments on drawingDrawing practice in early Quattrocento ItalyThe meaning of the appearance of Quattrocento metalpoint drawingsHistoriographical positionsArt historiographical positionsVisual evidence of the classical pastDrawing in Quattrocento FlorenceThe artist's evolving status, the revival of antiquity and the shifting status of drawingsIndirect physical evidence for reconstructing the activity of drawing in antiquityLeonardo da Vinci and metalpointMetalpoint in Cinquecento ItalyMetalpoints for drawing and writing: late medieval and early modern northern EuropeIntroduction: contextThe production of drawingsIndependent drawings?Model books on tablets, mainly metalpointSixteenth-century metalpoint sketchbook drawingsFifteenth- and sixteenth-century metalpoint drawings for painted portraitsMore sixteenth-century metalpoint drawingsRembrandt and metalpointEighteenth-century metalpoint drawingsWriting tablets: fifteenth-eighteenth centuryModern metalpointThe attraction of lineLater nineteenth-century metalpoint drawing in EnglandLater nineteenth- and twentieth-century metalpoint drawing in AmericaTwentieth-century European metalpoint drawings'Patent improved memorandum' and other metallic booksThe renaissance of metalpoint in contemporary AmericaAppendix 1Joseph Meder, Das Buchlein vom Silbersteft, Vienna,1909 translated by Susan ThorneAppendix 2Bibliographical review of recent literature on analysis and conservation of metalpoint drawingsColour of metalpoint lines as an identifierFaded metalpoint linesInvestigation of groundsInvestigation of metalpoint linesThe presence of mercury and other metal inclusions in metalpoint linesPreservation and conservationNotesBibliographyIndex.