PARCHMENT. Skins of certain animals, prepared after particular methods, have supplied writing material on which has been inscribed the literature of centuries. The preparation of such skins, in a manner which gave the material the name it pos sesses to-day (irepyagnvi, Lat. charta pergamena, Fr. parchemin) was traditionally attributed to Eumenes II. of Pergamum, 197-158 B.C.
The principal improvement in the new manufacture was the dressing of the skins in such a way as to render them capable of receiving writing on both sides, the older methods probably treat ing only one side for the purpose, a practice which was sufficient in times when the roll was the ordinary form of book and when it was not customary to write on the back as well as on the face of the material. The invention of parchment, with its two surfaces, ensured the development of the codex.
The animals whose skins were found appropriate for the manu facture of the new parchment were chiefly sheep, goats and calves.
But in the course of time there has arisen a distinction between the coarser and finer qualities of the material ; and while parch ment made from ordinary skins of sheep and goats continued to bear the name, the finer kinds of manufacture produced from the more delicate skins of the calf or kid, or of still-born or newly born calves or lambs, came to be generally known as vellum (Fr. velin). The skin codices of the early and middle ages being for the most part composed of the finer kinds of material, it has be come the custom to describe them as of vellum, although in some instances it would be more correct to call the material parchment.
The ordinary modern process of preparing the skins is by washing, liming, unhairing, scraping, washing a second time, stretching evenly on a frame, scraping a second time and paring down inequalities, dusting with sifted chalk and rubbing with pumice. Similar methods must have been employed from the first.
The comparatively large number of ancient and mediaeval mss. that have survived enables us to gather some knowledge of the varieties of the material in different periods and in different countries. We know from references in Roman authors that
parchment or vellum was entering into competition with papyrus as a writing material as early as the 2nd century A.D. (see ILLUMI NATED MANUSCRIPTS), though at that time it was probably not so skilfully prepared as to be a dangerous rival. But the surviving examples of the 3rd and 4th centuries show that a rapid improve ment must almost at once have been effected, for the vellum of that age is generally of a thin and delicate texture, firm and crisp, smooth and glossy. There was always a difference in colour be tween the surface of the skin from which the hair had been re moved and the surface next to the flesh of the animal, the latter being whiter than the other. This difference is generally more noticeable in the older examples, those of a later period having usually been treated more thoroughly with chalk and pumice. To obviate any unsightly contrast, it was customary, when making up the quires for a volume, to lay hair-side next to hair-side and flesh-side to flesh-side, so that, at whatever place the codex was opened, the tint of the open pages should be uniform.
As a rule, the vellum of early mss., down to and including the 6th century, is of good quality and well prepared. After this, the demand increasing, a greater amount of inferior material came into the market. The manufacture necessarily varied in different coun tries. In Ireland and England the vellum of the early mss. is usually of a stouter quality than that of foreign examples. In Italy and Greece and in the European countries generally border ing on the Mediterranean, a highly polished surface came into favour in the middle ages, with the ill effect that the hardness of the material resisted absorption, and that there was always a tendency for ink and paint to flake off. On the other hand, in western Europe a soft pliant vellum was in vogue for the better classes of mss., from the 12th century onwards. In the Italian Renaissance a material of extreme whiteness was affected.