Examples of uterine vellum, prepared from still-born or newly born young, are met with in choice volumes. A remarkable in stance of a codex composed of this delicate substance is the Addi tional MS. 23935, of the 13th and 14th centuries, in the British Museum, which is made up of as many as 579 leaves, without being a volume of abnormal bulk.
In conclusion, we must briefly notice the employment of vellum of a sumptuous character to add splendour to specially choice cod ices of the early middle ages. The art of dyeing the material with a rich purple colour was practised both in Constantinople and in Rome; and, at least as far back as the 3rd century, mss., gener ally of the Scriptures, were produced written in silver and gold on the precious stained vellum ; a useless luxury, denounced by St. Jerome in a well-known passage in his preface to the Book of Job. A certain number of early examples still survive, in a more or less perfect condition : such as the mss. of the Gospels in the Old Latin version at Verona of the 4th or 5th century; the cele brated codex of Genesis in the Imperial Library at Vienna; the Rossano ms. and the Patmos ms. of the Gospels in Greek; the
Gothic Gospels of Ulfilas at Uppsala, and others of the 6th cen tury, besides a few somewhat later specimens. In the revival of learning under Charlemagne a further encouragement was given to the production of such codices; but soon afterwards the art of purple-staining appears to have been lost or abandoned. A last trace of it is found in a few instances of stained vellum leaves in serted for ornament in mss. of the period of the Renaissance. BIBLIOGRAPHY.-La Lande, Art de faire le parchemin (1762) ; G. Peignot, Essai sur l'histoire du parchemin et du velin (1812) ; G. Birt, Das antike Buchwesen (1882) ; A. Watt, The Art of Leather Manufac ture (1885) ; W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter (3rd ed., 1896) ; Sir E. M. Thompson, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palae ography (3rd ed., 1906). (E. M. T.)