Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch s.v. "Kuhschelle" points to a 1410 mention in a Frankfurt archive; the OED lists 1440 as the earliest attestation of a bell-wether, the leading sheep of a flock, on whose neck a bell is hung.
In their Deutsches Wörterbuch, the Brothers Grimm hold it plausible that it derives from the custom of pinning feathers to one's hat or lance, but the coat of arms accorded to the brotherhood by Rudolf II displays two arms each holding a quill (schreibfeder), inducing the Grimms to speculate that the brotherhood may merely have originated as the fencing guild of the professional scribes.
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