Slios Bruguaine

Parchment: an Overview of the Material  Definition Parchment is the cleaned, stretched skin of an animal, untanned, that is used as a writing medium. In medieval Europe it was the most common carrier for calligraphy or illuminations, whether bound into a book or left as a loose sheet or wrapped around a wooden dowel as a scroll. Skin sources Not all hides serve equally for making parchment. Pig skin, for example, has large, coarse pores, and the hair follicles go all the way through the hide. A parchment made from pig skin would have tiny holes everywhere, and a rough texture that would quickly dull the scribe's quill. Pig skin is also extremely thick/heavy, which would make very stiff, bulky parchment; it would not do well for making thin, flexible sheets for bookbinding. Horse, and other thick-skinned animals, would likewise make very stiff and coarse parchment (unless the parchmenter was able to split the hide into two sheets, but this is a relatively advanced skill and adds...

Parchment: Medieval Availability & Use Deerskin parchment, with a duck feather quill pen. In the medieval period, scribes across Europe relied upon animal skin for their painting/writing/book-making medium. Paper existed (such as papyrus, in northern Africa, hemp and mulberry paper in Asia) but in the colder, wetter climate of northern Europe, animal skin was comparatively abundant, affordable, more durable and easier to make. Skins were a constant natural byproduct of butchering livestock for meat. Flat, stretched rawhide, called parchment or vellum (depending on thinness & quality), could be written upon with char pencil, chalk, ink or paint; it could be dyed special colors and cut into useful shapes (rectangles, hearts, etc), and it would last for centuries, so long as it was kept dry. It was also far more reusable than papyrus. Cow, goat, sheep and deer skin could all be made into parchment without too much labor investment, and the skin from the young animals (cal...