PARCHMENT.
Parchemin, . . . . IT.
I Pergament, . . . GER. Pergamino, . . . Sr.
Parchment consists of the skins of sheep and goats, prepared in such a manner as to render them suitable for being written upon. It is now chiefly employed for charters and other writings where great durability is desirable. The name is from the Latin Pergamena; from Pergamus, the reputed place of its invention. Eumenes IL, king of that place (who reigned B.C. 197-159), has the honour of the invention, he being stimulated thereto by the prohibition of the export of papyrus from Egypt ; but Herodotus says skins were com monly used for that purpose in his time ; and it is even asserted that the word Pergamena was not used until several centuries 'after the death of Eumenes. Layard says (Nineveh, ii. p. 151) the Egyptians used it occasionally as early as the 18th dynasty. According to Mabillon, the first writer
who used the term is Tatto, a monk of the 4th century ; before his time, the word Membrana was employed, as in the Greek Testament, 2 Timothy iv. 13. Following on the tables of stone used by Moses, the Jews used rolls of skin for their sacred writings.
Vegetable parchment, or ametastine, applic able for legal deeds, is made from water - leaf or unsized paper, and it acquires its peculiar properties by being dipped in diluted sulphuric acid, the strength of which must be regulated to the greatest nicety. It is one of the most unalter able and unchangeable of manufactured substances. It takes writing ink and dyes very readily, and, from its perfect surface, receives varnish without being sized in the first instance.—Faulkner ; Tom linson.