Apparently, the use of the asterisk as a proofreading mark goes back to the second century BCE. According to Wikipedia,
The asterisk has already been used as a symbol in ice age cave paintings. There is also a two thousand year old character used by Aristarchus of Samothrace called the asteriskos, ?, which he used when proofreading Homeric poetry to mark lines that were duplicated. Origen is known to have also used the asteriskos to mark missing Hebrew lines from his Hexapla. The asterisk evolved in shape over time, but its meaning as a symbol used to correct defects remained.
In the Middle Ages, the asterisk was used to emphasize a particular part of text, often linking those parts of the text to a marginal comment. However, an asterisk was not always used.