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PARCHMENT

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 799 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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PARCHMENT . Skins of certain animals, prepared after particular methods, have supplied See also:

writing material on which has been inscribed the literature of centuries. Such a durable substance, in most cases easily obtainable in See also:

FAIR

fair abundance, would naturally suggest itself for the purpose, and we are therefore prepared for See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence of its use, and also for the survival of actual specimens, from very See also:

ancient times. The tradition of the employment of skins as writing material by the ancient Egyptians is to be traced back to the See also:

period of the Pharaohs of the IVth See also:

DYNASTY (Gr. &vvaareta, sovereignty, the position of a hevnori7r, lord, ruler, from SuvaaBay to be able, Suvaµas, power)

Dynasty, and in the See also:

BRITISH

British Museum and elsewhere there exist skin-rolls which date back to some 1500 years B.C. But the See also:

COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country which not only manufactured but also exported in abundance the writing material made from the See also:

PAPYRUS

papyrus plant (see PAPYRUS) hardly needed to make use of any other material, and the instances of skin-rolls inscribed in See also:

EGYPT

Egypt must at all times have been rare. But in western See also:

ASIA

Asia the practice of using skins as writing material, must have been widespread even at a very See also:

early period. The See also:

Jews made use of them for their sacred books, and it may be presumed for other literature also; and the old tradition has been maintained by this conservative See also:

RACE

race down to our own See also:

day, requiring the See also:

synagogue rolls to be inscribed on this See also:

time-honoured material. No doubt their neighbours the Phoenicians, so ready to adapt the customs of other nations to their own See also:

ADVANTAGE

advantage, would also have followed the same practice. The Persians inscribed their See also:

ANNALS (Annales, from annus, a year)

annals on skins; and skins were employed by the Ionian Greeks, as proved by the words of See also:

HERODOTUS (c. 484-425 B.C.)

Herodotus (v. 58). There is no evidence forthcoming that the same usage was followed by the western Greeks and by the See also:

ITALIC

Italic tribes; but it is difficult to suppose that at a remote period, before the importation of papyrus, such an obviously convenient writing material as skin was not used among the early civilized races of See also:

GREECE

Greece and See also:

Italy. The method of preparation of skins for the service of literature in those distant ages is unknown to us; but it may be assumed that it was more or less imperfect, and that the material was rather of the See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character of tanned See also:

leather than of the thinner and better prepared substance which was to follow at a later time.

The improvement of the manufacture to which we refer was to be of a nature so thorough as to endow the material with a new name destined to last down to the See also:

PRESENT

present day. The new manufacture was traditionally attributed to See also:

Eumenes II. of See also:

PERGAMUM, or PERGAMTS (mod. Bergama)

Pergamum, 197–158 B.C. The See also:

COMMON

common See also:

story, as told by See also:

Pliny on the authority of See also:

Varro, is that Eumenes, when seeking to enlarge the library of his See also:

capital, was opposed by the See also:

JEALOUSY (adapted from Fr. jalousie, formed from jaloux, jealous, Low Lat. zelosus, Gr. j'i os, ardour, zeal, from the root seen in '&u', to boil, ferment; cf. " yeast ")

jealousy of the See also:

PTOLEMIES

Ptolemies, who forbade the export of papyrus from Egypt, thus hoping to check the growth of the See also:

RIVAL

rival library; and that the Pergamene See also:

king was thus compelled to revert to the old See also:

CUSTOM (from O. Fr. costume, costume or coustume; Low Lat. costuma, a shortened form of consuetudo)

custom of using skins as writing material. It is needless to regard this story as literally true, or as other than a popular explanation of a See also:

GREAT

great development of the manufacture of skin material for books in the reign of Eumenes. In former times the prepared skins had been known by the natural titles &6-pat, µeµt3pavae, the Latin membranae, and these were at first also attached to the new manufacture; but the latter soon received a See also:

SPECIAL

special name after the See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place of its origin, and became known as repyapsivi, charta pergamena, from which descends our See also:

ENGLISH

English See also:

TERM

term parchment, through the See also:

French parchemin. The See also:

TITLE (0. Fr. title, mod. titre, from Lat. titulus)

title of pergamena actually appears first in the See also:

EDICT (Lat. edictum, from e, out, and dicere, to say, speak)

edict De pretiis rerum of See also:

Diocletian (A.D. 301), and in a passage in one of St See also:

Jerome's Epistles. The See also:

PRINCIPAL

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 treating only one See also:

side for the purpose, a practice which was sufficient in times when the See also:

roll was the See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form of See also:

BOOK

book and when it was not customary to write on the back as well as on the See also:

FACE (from Lat. fades, derived either from facere, to make, or from a root fa-, meaning " appear "; cf. Gr. cbatvstv)

face of the material. The invention of parchment with its two surfaces, recto and verso, equally available for the See also:

SCRIBE, AUGUSTIN EUGENE (1791-1860, French dramatist, was born in Paris on the 24th of December 1791. His father was a silk merchant, and he was well educated, being destined for the bar. But, having a real gift for the theatre, a gift which unfortunately

scribe, ensured the development of the codex. (See See also:

MANUSCRIPT

MANUSCRIPT.) The animals whose skins were found appropriate for the manufacture of the new parchment were chiefly See also:

sheep, goats and calves. But in course of time there has arisen a distinction between the coarser and finer qualities of the material; and, while parchment made from ordinary skins of sheep and goats continued to See also:

bear the name, the finer kinds of manufacture produced from the more delicate skins of the See also:

calf or kid, or of still-See also:

BORN, IGNAZ, EDLER VON (1742–1791)

born or newly-born, calves or See also:

LAMBS

lambs, came to be generally known as vellum (Fr. velin). The skin codices of the early and See also:

MIDDLE

middle ages being for the most See also:

PART

part composed of the finer kinds of material, it has become the custom to describe them as of vellum, although in some instances it would be more correct to See also:

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

call the material parchment.

The ordinary See also:

MODERN

modern See also:

PROCESS

process of preparing the skins is by washing, liming, unhairing, scraping, washing a second time, stretching evenly on a See also:

FRAME

frame, scraping a second time and paring down inequalities, dusting with sifted See also:

CHALK

chalk and rubbing with See also:

PUMICE (Lat. purnex, spumex, spuma, froth)

pumice. Somewhat similar methods, no doubt varying in details, must have been employed from the first. The comparatively large number of ancient and See also:

MEDIEVAL

medieval See also:

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 See also:

ROMAN

Roman authors that parchment or vellum was entering into competition with papyrus as a writing material at least as early as the 2nd See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century of our era (see MANUSCRIPT), 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 improvement must almost at once have been effected, for the vellum of that See also:

AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas)

age is generally of a thin and delicate texture, See also:

FIRM

firm and crisp, with a smooth and glossy See also:

SURFACE

surface. Here it should be noticed that there was always, and in some periods and in some countries more than in others, a difference in See also:

COLOUR (Lat. color, connected with celare, to hide, the root meaning, therefore, being that of a covering)

colour between the surface of the skin from which the See also:

HAIR (a word common to Teutonic languages)

hair had been removed and the inner surface next to the flesh of the See also:

animal, the latter being whiter than the other. This difference is gene-rally 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 See also:

VOLUME

volume, to See also:

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 See also:

UNIFORM

uniform. As a See also:

RULE

rule, the vellum of early MSS., down to and including the 6th century, is of See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good quality and well prepared. After this, the demand increasing, a greater amount of inferior material came into the See also:

MARKET (Lat. mercatus, trade or place of trade)

market. The manufacture necessarily varied in different countries. In See also:

Ireland and See also:

England the vellum of the early MSS. is usually of stouter quality than that of See also:

FOREIGN

foreign examples.

In Italy and Greece and in the See also:

EUROPEAN

European countries generally bordering on the Mediterranean, a highly polished surface came into favour in the middle ages, with the See also:

ill effect that the hardness of the material resisted absorption, and that there was always a tendency for See also:

INK (from Late Lat. encaustum, Gr. gysavorov, the purple ink used by Greek and Roman emperors, from iyKaiew, to burn in)

ink and paint to flake off. On the other See also:

hand, in western See also:

EUROPE

Europe a soft pliant vellum was in See also:

VOGUE, EUGENE MELCHIOR, COMTE DE (1848- )

vogue for the better classes of MSS. from the 12th century onwards. In the period of the See also:

ITALIAN

Italian See also:

RENAISSANCE, THE

Renaissance a material of extreme whiteness and purity was affected. Examples of uterine vellum, prepared from still-born or newly-born See also:

young, are met with in choice volumes. A remark-able instance of a codex composed of this delicate substance is the Additional 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 See also:

NOTICE

notice the employment of vellum of a sumptuous character to add splendour to specially choice codices of the early middle ages. The See also:

art of See also:

DYEING (0. Eng. dedgian, dealt ; Mid. Eng. deyen)

dyeing the material with a See also:

rich See also:

PURPLE

purple colour was practised both in See also:

Constantinople and in See also:

Rome; and, at least as far back as the 3rd century, MSS., generally of the Scriptures, were produced written in See also:

SILVER

silver and See also:

gold on the See also:

PRECIOUS (O. Fr. precios, mod. precieux, Lat. pretiosus, of high value or price, pretium)

precious stained vellum: a useless luxury, denounced by St Jerome in a well-known passage in his See also:

PREFACE (Med. Lat. prefatia, for classical praefatio, praefari, to speak beforehand)

preface to the Book of See also:

Job. A certain number of early examples still survive, in a more or less perfect See also:

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

condition: such as the MS. of the Gospels in the Old Latin version at See also:

Verona, of the 4th or 5th century; the celebrated codex of See also:

Genesis in the Imperial Library at See also:

Vienna; the See also:

ROSSANO

Rossano MS. and the See also:

PATMOS

Patmos MS. of the Gospels in See also:

Greek; the See also:

GOTHIC

Gothic Gospels of See also:

ULFILAS (c. 311-383)

Ulfilas at See also:

UPSALA, or UPPSALA

Upsala, and others, of the 6th century, besides a few somewhat later specimens. In the revival of learning under See also:

Charlemagne a further encouragement was given to the See also:

PRODUCTION (Lat. productionem, from producere, to pro-duce)

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 isolated instances of stained vellum leaves inserted for See also:

ORNAMENT (Lat. ornare, to adorn)

ornament in MSS. of the period of the Renaissance. (E.

End of Article: PARCHMENT

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