#VELLUM TRACING PAPER SKIN#

Ibscher, and preserved in the Cairo Museum a roll of the Twelfth Dynasty (c. 2550–2450 BC), but the earliest of such documents extant are: a fragmentary roll of leather of the Sixth Dynasty (c. David Diringer noted that 'the first mention of Egyptian documents written on leather goes back to the Fourth Dynasty (c.

Writing on prepared animal skins had a long history, however. As prices rose for papyrus and the reed used for making it was over-harvested towards local extinction in the two nomes of the Nile delta that produced it, Pergamon adapted by increasing the use of parchment. In the 2nd century BC, a great library was set up in Pergamon that rivalled the famous Library of Alexandria. Herodotus mentions writing on skins as common in his time, the 5th century BC and in his Histories (v.58) he states that the Ionians of Asia Minor had been accustomed to give the name of skins ( diphtherai) to books this word was adapted by Hellenized Jews to describe scrolls. This account, originating in the writings of Pliny the Elder ( Natural History, Book XII, 69–70), is false because parchment had been in use in Anatolia and elsewhere long before the rise of Pergamon. The city so dominated the trade that a legend later arose which said that parchment had been invented in Pergamon to replace the use of papyrus which had become monopolized by the rival city of Alexandria. The word parchment evolved (via the Latin pergamenum and the French parchemin) from the name of the city of Pergamon, which was a thriving center of parchment production during the Hellenistic period. A subsidiary use was found by scientists, most notably Thomas Graham, who employed parchment for the separation of aqueous solutions he termed dialysis in this respect, parchment is seen to be akin to sausage casings made from the intestines. The history of parchment is inseparable from the written word, once it had descended from clay tablets. It is for these reasons that many modern conservators, librarians and archivists prefer to use either the broader term parchment, or the neutral term animal membrane.

#VELLUM TRACING PAPER SKIN#

To-day the distinction, among collectors of manuscripts, is that vellum is a highly refined form of skin, parchment a cruder form, usually thick, harsh, less highly polished than vellum, but with no distinction between skin of calf, or sheep, or of goat. 1599–1602) the following exchange occurs: In 1519, William Horman wrote in his Vulgaria: 'That stouffe that we wrytte upon, and is made of beestis skynnes, is somtyme called parchement, somtyme velem, somtyme abortyve, somtyme membraan.' In Shakespeare's Hamlet (written c. In practice, therefore, there has long been considerable blurring of the boundaries between the different terms. However, when old books and documents are encountered it may be difficult, without scientific analysis, to determine the precise animal origin of a skin, either in terms of its species or in terms of the animal's age. Some authorities have sought to observe these distinctions strictly: for example, lexicographer Samuel Johnson in 1755, and master calligrapher Edward Johnston in 1906. The equivalent material made from calfskin, which was of finer quality, was known as vellum (from the Old French velin or vellin, and ultimately from the Latin vitulus, meaning a calf) while the finest of all was uterine vellum, taken from a calf foetus or stillborn calf. The term originally referred only to the skin of sheep and, occasionally, goats. Today the term parchment is often used in non-technical contexts to refer to any animal skin, particularly goat, sheep or cow, that has been scraped or dried under tension. Animal skins are more labor intensive to process manually than plant based papyrus (and were therefore probably more expensive) but, as well as better availability parchment probably also had several practical advantages over papyrus such as having having a smoother writing surface and would have been more durable if reasonably conserved would have better resistance to occasional mishandling Parchment and vellum It may be called animal membrane by libraries and museums that wish to avoid distinguishing between parchment and the more-restricted term vellum (see below).įrom the Koinē Greek city name Pergamum in Anatolia where parchment supposedly first was developed around the second century BCE probably as a substitute for papyrus which was then becoming less easily available.

Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of young animals such as lambs and young calves. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals-primarily sheep, calves, and goats.

Vellum tracing paper