[schoen]

> Cum soror una cui usus erat scribendi membranam, dum ad lineas punctaret subulam incaute trahens, oculum transfigit.

Ugh! :-(

I didn't know about this part of the process of manuscript preparation. Apparently, awls were used to score or rule the guidelines onto a parchment, or to perforate an entire set of parchment leaves with very tiny "pricking" marks showing the desired spacing for the guidelines (which would then be identical on every page in that set).

http://web.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/ruling.html

So that explains "punctaret" (a very post-classical word).

"Then one sister, whose custom it was to write parchment, while she was carelessly carrying an awl in order to prick the lines, impaled her eye."

[Cerium]

David Bull (in one of his YouTube videos [1]) relates a piece of similar advice he was given. An old carver advised him when he was younger to never scratch his face with his carving hand. Apparently accidentally impaling your eye is enough of a risk to make this safety habit an oral tradition.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKSrgKjevPmNZxCAyTZP5cQ

[cafard]

Back in the days when one did "paste-up", I removed my X-Acto knife from the work with a flourish, and it stopped in my thigh. There was no significant damage, but I was more cautious after that.