the history and technology of parchment making

8/19/2019 The History and Technology of Parchment Making

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The History andTechnology of Parchment

Making

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Meliora di Curci

1. Introduction

There have been many diferent materials used as writing media throughout the

history o human evolution. These have included stones, clay tablets, bricks, bark,wood, papyrus, linen, wax tablets, metal, ivory, bone, leather and paper (Reed,1!", p. 1#.

$n the recent times, the three main orms o writing media used above all else arepapyrus, parchment and paper. This paper will concentrate mainly on parchmentbut will discuss the overlap o the other two orms where applicable.

a. What is Parchment?

%archment is the processing o animal skins to produce a hard, durable,

white material o even opacity and uniorm thickness which will takepigments, inks and dyes in a suitable manner or writing (&enyon, 1'", p.!#. %archment is a specially prepared skin which is not tanned ()ansser,1*+, p. "1#.

The animal skins are wet, covered in a lime solution, the hair removed, theskins placed back in the lime, the lime then washed of and the wet skinstretched and dried. -hile drying a number o diferent pretreatments suchas pumice and chalk were sometimes rubbed into the surace o the wet skin(/unter, 1', p. 1#.

Vellum versus Parchment There appears to be con0icting reports as to the denitions o these terms.2ome authorities state that parchment made only rom calskin is known asvellum, while all other animals orm parchment (-heelock, 1", p. *#. 3therauthorities state that vellum specically reers to uterine parchment (Rudin,1+, p. 1+#. 3ther authorities state that vellum reers to high 4ualityparchment only. Reed (1!*, p. !# sums up this dilemma best when hestates both terms seem equally valid. To avoid conusion, this paper onlyuses the term parchment, except when directly 4uoting another source.

2. History

a. Leather and Skin

5s early as the late 5ssyrian period (th 6entury 76# the inhabitants o8esopotamia preerred animal hides to clay tablets or writing, andaccording to /erodotus, wrote on unhaired sheep and goat skins ()ansser,1*+, p. "1#. $nscriptions rom 9enderah state: after the nding ofdecayed leather rolls from the days of King Kheops (c. 2575 BC (Reed, 1!",p. #.

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The simplied tanning process used to make leather (see section '.1#created di;culties in drying the wet leather to a smooth, 0at sheet ree owrinkles and undulations (Reed, 1!*, p. +# which detracted rom theirwidespread use, leaving papyrus the dominant writing media (Reed, 1!*, p.'!#.

-heelock (1", p. # reers to a manuscript on the 2orbonne o %aris thatwas apparently written on tanned human skin. This item has not been

corroborated by any other readings or this paper.

b. Parchment

$n the second century 76 a library was set up at %ergamum in 5sia 8inor by&ing <umenes $$. %liny wrote in his =atural /istory, 7ook >$$$, passage >>$:

2ubse4uently, also according to ?arro, when owing to the rivalry between&ing %tolemy and &ing <umenes about their libraries, %tolemy suppressedthe export o %apyrus, parchment was invented at %ergamum and aterwardsthe employment o the material on which the immortality o human beings

depends, spread indiscriminately.@ (Reed, 1!*, p!#

The signicant innovation at %ergamum was that by simpliying the li4uorbath and drying the pelt in a stretched state, it led to the creation oextremely durable, smooth taut sheets o uniorm opacity o a pale colourknown as parchment (Reed, 1!*, p. '#.

$n 1+ two parchment documents were discovered at 5vroman in &urdistan,which bear dates e4uivalent to 76 and ""76. 5lso in 1"' excavations atthe site o the Roman ortress o 9ura discovered more parchmentdocuments which correspond to the dates o 11A 76. This leads someauthorities to believe that parchment was in use beore the time o the%ergamum library, and the %ergamum simply rened the process (&enyon,1'", p. #.

Towards the end o the rst century 76, parchment began to increase inpopularity due to the availability o of cuts to be used or ephemera such astags and labels (Reed, 1!*, p. !#. 3ther advantages o parchment overpapyrus was its 0exibility and the act that both sides o the parchment couldbe written on. 5lso the writing was easier to read and corrections easier tomake (Reed, 1!", p. *#. 7y the third century 59, parchment was thepreerred writing medium or all purposes (Reed, 1!*, p. *'#.

c. Scroll versus Code

$n the early Roman period single sheets were generally used or ephemerasuch as speech drats or memoranda, but until "++ 59 texts o anyappreciable length were on scrolls (Reed, 1!*, p. *#. %apyrus andparchment scrolls were constructed in similar manners but whereas papyruswas merely glued together, the parchment sheets were stitched. Theparchment scrolls thereore had a stronger Boin and were more durable(Reed, 1!*, p. *#.

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9uring the rst two centuries 59 the scroll gradually disappeared in avour othe codex. &enyon (1'", p. 11# believes that scrolls were used by paganreligions and the codex was brought to prominence by the early 6hristianreligions. Reed (1!", p. *# believed that the ease in which parchment canbe made into a codex (while papyrus was not structural suitable# could bethe main reason, but then in 1!* (p. *# Reed believed the reasons or thisare more obscureC either way they are certainly outside the realm o thispaper.

d. S!ecialised Parchment Ty!es

9ue to the range o tasks that parchment was re4uired or, a number ospecialised parchment types came into being.

1. "terine Parchment

9uring the middle ages, some parchment was made rom the skins ounborn animals. $n the animal oetus, the skin develops early so that ata tender age it has a wellormed dermal network which is both thin

and strong. $t also has minimal i any hair to be removed. 9ue to theseproperties, uterine parchments were highly regarded as 4ualitymaterials (Reed, 1!*, p. !A#. Dterine parchments could have easilybeen made rom sheep, goats and calves, but due to the small siEes othese skins, calves were the main material used, as they retained thelargest cutting area (Reed, 1!*, p. !!#.

2. #old$eater%s Parchment

)oldbeaterFs parchment was made rom the caecum o cattle intestine. This orm o parchment was processed and ormed the same asordinary parchment, $t is however thin, tough, resilient and can stretchwithout breaking. )oldbeaters use it to separate sheets o gold whenbuilding a block which can then be hammered into ner leaves o gold(Reed, 1!*, p. !!#.

3. Trans!arent Parchment

There was a re4uirement or transparent orms o parchment in thescriptoria or scribes to use as @tracing paper@ or tracing decorativeelements when illuminating manuscripts. Transparent parchment hasalso been used in spectacles, magniying glasses and as a windowmaterial when glass was not available (Reed, 1!*, p. *#.

e. Introduction of Pa!er

Dp to about 1*"+ 59 parchment remained popular and the trade guildssupplied su;cient 4uantities or book producers, but at this time, paper andprinting rom movable type had become rmly established (Reed, 1!*, p.*#. <ven ater the advent o woodblock printing and moveable metal type,parchment did continue to be used (/unter, 1', p. 1A# but mainly as abinding material to cover paper books. <ven this trade died out in the 1!th



6entury as these bindings were considered to be too plain. Reed (1!*, p.*# sums up the current usage o parchment as ollows:

%archment continues to be made, being used or legal documents, archivalrecords, warrants and certicates, but its total production is now very slightand, apart rom copies o historically important texts, literary works arerarely committed to its surace.

3. Technology

a. &arly Tanning Process

5n ++ 76 2umerian account gave the ollowing or dressing a resh oxhide:

!his s"in# you $ill ta"e it# !hen you $ill drench it in pure pulverised %isaba&our# in $ater# beer and rst quality $ine# 'ith the best fat of pure o# thealum of the land of the )ittites# and oa" galls# you $ill press it and you $illcover the bron*e "ettle+drum $ith it (Reed, 1!A, p. "*#.

5nd a 6archemish text o about A++ 76 reads:

,ou $ill steep the s"in of a young goat $ith the mil" of a yello$ goat and$ith &our# you $ill anoint it $ith pure oil# ordinary oil and fat of a pure co$#,ou $ill soa" the alum in grape -uice and then cover the s"in $ith gall nuts (Reed, 1!*, p. "*#.

<arly tanners appear to use a very simple done li4uor baths approach totanning skins. The bath generally contained warm a4ueous solutions ovegetable matter consisting o twigs, stalks, leaves, nuts and ruit o sotgreen plants andGor wood, bark and galls o shrubs and trees (Reed, 1!*, p."A#. The plant matter would erment naturally and the enEymes producedwould break down the plant carbohydrates to smaller organic substancessuch as lactic or acetic acids (Reed, 1!*, p. "A#. The bath served threeprocesses:

1. 'ehairing( The enEymes in the li4uor bath loosened the base o thehair ollicles, allowing the hair to be easily and mechanically removed(Reed, 1!*, p. "#.

2. Hoosening: The enEymes also loosened and digested some o the othersubstances in the dermal network which efectively cleaned the peltand allowed individual bres to expand by absorbing the organic acidsrom the bath (Reed, 1!*, p. "#.

3. Cleaning( The ermentation o the vegetable matter produces carbondioxide gas within the bre network o the pelt which, when rising tothe surace o the bath, urther help to clean the pelt (Reed, 1!*, p."#.

-hen the pelts were removed rom the li4uor bath, the hair wasscraped of with a knie. 2imilarly the 0esh side was scraped clean and

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smooth (Reed, 1!*, p. "#. The vegetable tannins produced by theli4uor bath introduced chemical links between the larger bres ocollagen in the dermal network which turned the skins into tannedleather (Reed, 1!*, p. "#.

b. Tanned Parchment

The maBority o parchments up to "++76 appear to have been ormed in the

same manner as the tanned leather above, with the addition o the act thatthe wet pelt was stretched or drying. -henever li4uor baths o ermentingvegetable matter were used, there was some chance that the resultingparchment would be vegetabletanned (Reed, 1!*, p. '#.

$t was only when the pelt preparation baths were simplied by excludingmaterials rich in vegetable tannin, that the parchments maniestedproperties diferent to leather (Reed, 1!*, p. '#.

c. Parchment Making Process

5ccording to Reed (1!*, p. !"# the rst known text on parchment making isthe ucca /anuscript written in a =orthern $talian monastery in the th6entury 59:

)o$ parchment is to be prepared0 place 1the s"in in lime $ater and leave itthere for a fe$ days. !hen etend it on a frame and scrape it on both sides$ith a sharp "nife and leave it to dry (6odex +#.

Theophilus, a 1"th 6entury scholar has a more detailed set o instructions:

!a"e goat s"ins and stand them in $ater for a day and a night. !a"e themand $ash them until the $ater runs clear. !a"e an entirely ne$ bath and place therein old lime and $ater miing $ell to form a thic" cloudy liquor.3lace the s"ins in this# folding them on the &esh side. /ove them $ith a polet$o or three times each day# leaving them for eight days (and t$ice as longin $inter. %et you must $ithdra$ the s"ins and unhair them. 3our o4 thecontents of the bath and repeat the process using the same quantities# placing the s"ins in the lime liquor and moving them once each day overeight days as before. !en ta"e them out and $ash $ell until the $ater runsquite clean. 3lace them in another bath $ith clean $ater and leave themthere for t$o days. !hen ta"e them out# attach cords and tie them to thecircular frame. ry# then shave them $ith a sharp "nife after $hich leavethem for t$o days out of the sun. /oisten $ith $ater and rub the &esh side$ith po$dered pumice. 6fter t$o days $et it again by sprin"ling $ith a little$ater and fully clean the &esh side $ith pumice so as to ma"e it quite $etagain. !hen tighten up the cords# equalise the tension so that the sheet $illbecome permanent. nce the sheets are dry# nothing further remains to bedone. (Reed, 1!*, p. !#.

1. Choice of skin

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5 wide variety o skins seemed to have been used to make parchment,predominantly cal, sheep and goat. Reed (1!*, p. 1# states that andgoat skins were preerred to be used as actual manuscript leaves whilepigs or hog skin was used or bindings. /owever, 2EcEepanowska(1, p. '# carried out an analysis o a sample o 1th 6entury bookso edicts rom the 3rder o 2t IohnC all parchments examined weredetermined to have been made rom goat skins only.

Reed (1!*, p. !A# 4uotes a dialogue between two 1*th 6entury Jrench8onks:

8n my s"in are the prayers and all the blessings made to )oly Church

6nd have not calves# goats# "ids# Coneys# hares and cats s"in9 6svellum they may be $ell $ritten upon9 !o be sure their parchment is$orth more than your s"in $hich serves you less.

Reed (1!*, p. !A# 4uotes a 1+th 6entury text rom 6ordova, 2pain:

parchment from the inner layers of deer and ga*elle s"ins&enyon(1'", p. A# also reers to a practice o using antelope skin.

2. Soaking the Skin

The rst step in creating parchment, is to wet or soak the recently0ayed skin in water. This process removes blood, dung and otherorganic matter, but it also wets all parts o the skin to allow easierpenetration o the dehairing li4uor (Reed, 1!*, p. +#. $n modernpractice this soaking is carried out as rapidly as possible, nishing ofwith running water to minimise the loss o skin bres by any bacterialaction which might result rom the use o static baths (Reed, 1!*, p.+#.

3. The Li)uor *ath

$t is not known when lime was rst used in the preparation o skins,()ansser, 1*+, p. "# but it is apparent rom the Hucca manuscriptthat they were used by the th 6entury 59. /owever, there appears tobe no evidence that these lime baths had replaced the earlier methodo using baths o ermenting vegetable matter (Reed, 1!*, p. +#.$ndeed, the 7ook o &ells an th 6entury calskin parchment shows noevidence o being placed in a lime bath, or even that any orm o acidor alkali was used in its preparation (6ains, 1", p. *#.

The purpose o the lime bath is to soten and dissolve the epidermallayer that lines the hair ollicles thus making the hair easier to remove(6ains, 1", p. *+#. There also appears to be some evidence thaturine was used as an alternative to lime to complete this task()ansser, 1*+, p. "1#.

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5ccording to Reed (1!*, p. 1# the dehairing li4uors would have beencontained in wooden or hollowed out stone vats o approximately "metres long, 1 metre wide and 1 metre deep. Reed also states thatthese vats would have contained one or two doEen skins at a time.8etal vats would not have been used due to the potential o metalstaining the skins.

5s lime is only slightly soluble in water, the lime baths are relatively

weak. /owever, they are still very e;cient and dangerous to humanskinC hence TheophilusF instruction to use wooden poles to move theskins around to ensure a uniorm reaction within the lime bath (Reed,1!*, p. 1#.

4. +emoving the Hair

The skins were removed rom the bath and, while still wet, weredraped over a wooden or stone beam. The loosened hair could beremoved using a metal or stone knie. Reed (1!*, p. 1# believes thatthe hair was so loose that it could be pushed of with the hands,

provided they were protected by stout gloves.

5. +esoaking and re,ashing

Reed (1!", p. 1# considers the second lime bath suggested by Theophilus to be a sound practice as the action o lime on the dermalbre network layer is slow. /e believes that i the time devoted toliming is curtailed, then the skin may be uneven in character, thusdi;cult to stretch evenly which leads to parchment o variable colourand opacity.

/owever, i the skin is let in the lime baths too long, then the brenetwork may become too weak, developing holes in the dermal layerand the skin may not be able to withstand the stretching re4uired orparchment (Reed, 1!", p. 1#.

Reed (1!", p. "# also states that plain lime baths are too slow orcommercial modern production o parchment and leather and the limeis now augmented by the addition o sodium sulphide into the bath.

5ter the second lime bath, the skin is well washed in running water toremove any traces o lime let adhering to the skin. 5ny residual limecan cause the same problems as i the skin was let lying in the limesolution (Reed, 1!", p. "#.

6. Stretching

-hen the skin is removed rom the li4uor bath, the bre network isruns in all directions and is very meshed. $ the bres have not beenexcessively tanned, the bre network may be stretched when drying. This leads to a number o the bres being broken under tension when



drying and this allows the remaining bres to become aligned intolayers parallel to the grain (Reed, 1!*, p. #.

The stretching is accomplished with the aid o smooth pebbles o stonewhich were pressed around the edge o the wet skin. 3ne end o stoutcords were tied around the pebbles and the other end attached to adrying rame, thus the skin could be dried under tension (Reed, 1!*,p. "#.

The rame was usually an open orm which allowed both suraces to beworked on at the same time. 7oth sides o the skin were scraped with asharp knie to smooth the surace and produce a sheet o uniormthickness. 8ostly the work was carried out on the 0esh side, as thegrain side merely needed any remaining ne hairs to be removed(Reed, 1!*, p. "#. The knie does not cut through the skin, but ratherpushes and separates the sotened at, 0esh and gland tissue rom thetougher collagen bre (6ains, 1", p. *+#.

$ the skin is not placed under su;cient tension, rougher grains and

transparent regions may develop in the dried parchment (Reed, 1!*,p. #.

7. 'rying

9uring the drying process, the decomposed collagen glue also dries toa rm consistency and sets the layers o bres into the stretchedconditionC the bres cannot revert to their ormer relaxed state. Reed(1!*, p. # sums up the process thusly:

This results in a highly stressed sheet which is smooth, strong,relatively inelastic, light in colour, yet opa4ue: a material which mayproperly be called parchment.

d. Pre-use treatments

7eore the parchment was used by the scribes, it usually underwent anumber o pretreatments to improve smoothness and ability to absorb thecorrect amount o inks and colours (Reed, 1!*, p. !#. 3ther desirableattributes were to increase whiteness o the surace, remove stains anddrops o 0uid and to enhance grain patterns i re4uired (Reed, 1!", p. 1!#.

1. Pouncing

%ouncing is the rubbing o pumice powder into the 0esh side o theparchment in order to produce a smooth, silky nap to which the inkswill adhere. $t also allows the inks to penetrate deep into the breswhich adds to the permanence o the writing. 5s this treatmentre4uires the parchment to be damp while the pumice is applied, itneeds to be conducted while the parchment is still on the drying rame(Reed, 1!*, p. #.



2. Stanchgrain

2tanchgrain is the common name given to a variety o thin pastescomprised o varying 4uantities o lime, 4uicklime, 0our, egg white andmilk. -hen these pastes are rubbed into the parchment surace with adamp cloth, they produced an extremely smooth, hard, even, whiteappearance. The varieties o as stanchgrain were believed to createparchments o outstanding 4uality (Reed, 1!*, p. 1#.

3. .ther treatments

The variety o treatments or parchment can be simple or complex andare designed or a number o diferent reasonsC to prevent ink romrunning, to even out the surace or to whiten the appearance (Reed,1!*, p. +#.

The running o ink and poor adhesion o ink were thought to be due toan excess o grease let in the parchment ater the lime bath, hence anumber o diferent solutions were devised to remove the grease at

this stage o the process. These treatments were mainly composed ocalcium compounds such as lime, chalk or woodash and were appliedas either dry powders or wet pastes (Reed, 1!*, p. +#.

2EcEepanowska (1, p. '# analysed a sample o 1th 6entury booksrom the 3rder o 2t IohnC the calcium carbonate in the samples oground were identied as a mixture o calcite (6a63'# and vateriteC aorm o 6a63' that rarely occurs in nature. 2EcEepanowska believesthe presence o vaterite may indicate that the calcite used or the pretreatments was o articial origin.

4. Colouring Parchment

6lark (1!, p. A"+# 4uotes a *th 6entury vulgate 7ible currentlyhoused in the 6apitular Hibrary o ?erona which was written on crimsonvellum, which has since aged to purpleC thus it is not sae to assume allparchments were white.

6ennini, a 1*th 6entury cratsman provides recipes to tint parchment avariety o colours including purple, indigo, green red and peach. /ewas also aware o the changes this would wrought in the parchment,and so ofers the ollowing advice:

'hen you $ant to tint "id parchment# you should rst soa" it in springor $ell $ater until it gets all $et and soft. !hen# stretching it over aboard# li"e a drum s"in# fasten it do$n $ith big+headed nails# andapply the tints to it in due course# as described above.(Thompson,1A+. p. 1+#

5. '..* *y/antine Pre-treatments

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7yEantine parchment is characterised by a glossy smooth surace. $t isbelieved that )reek parchmentmakers polished it thoroughly and usedeggwhite and 0axseed and to obtain such an efect (7ykova, 1', p.1#.

Dnortunately, there are no historical documents on the methods tomanuacture parchment in medieval )reece are known. &ireyeva(1, p. +# conrmed with thinlayer chromatography that eggwhite

and linseed extract were used to coat the parchment on a sampleamount o 7yEantine manuscripts dating rom 11th to 1th centuries59. 9ried albumen is very ragile and re4uired the linseed extract togive the treatment the elasticity and strength necessary or a suracecoating. 5s it is obvious that the treatment was applied more thickly onthe 0esh side o the parchment, it is assumed this was to make the twosides indistinguishable or use (&ireyeva, 1, p. 1#.

3nly one other surace treatment was ound by &ireyeva (1, p. "#consisted o a coating o collagen glue, casein and lead white. $t hasbeen assumed that this was applied by 1th 6entury 7yEantine

%archmentmakers in 6onstantinople.

e. Trans!arent Parchment Process

8ostly transparent parchment seemed to be used in the scriptorium basedon the number o recipes provided by the monasteries. 3ne such 1*th6entury recipe is:

!o ma"e parchment as though it $ere glass ta"e a thin parchment preferablyfrom a "id slain $hich is already reasonably transparent. 8f you can nd sucha parchment scrape it $ith a "nife as thinly as possible. !hen soa" thescraped parchment in the $hites of eggs $hich have been allo$ed to gorotten# or in a $atery solution of gum 6rabic in a sh glue $hich has beendiluted $ith $ater or in a glue made by ltering through a cloth or a gluemade from the shavings of this or any other parchment.

!hen# $hen the parchment has been softened in one of the above $ays#stretch it on a frame as you stretch parchments normally after ta"ing the pelt from the lime bath. 'hen the parchment is dry it is ready. But $hen itseems after drying that it had insu:cient of the liquor# ta"e a spongemoistened $ith the latter and smear the parchment on both sides until youthin" it is all right. 6nd then if you place the parchment over any picture thelatter is clearly visible through it and you can dra$ upon the parchment atrue li"eness of the picture you $ish to copy (Reed, 1!*, p. *#.

This particular recipe recommends that to make the parchment transparentit should be rubbed with highly hydroscopic substances, but Reed (1!*, p.*# believed that the transparency may have been more in0uenced by thelack o tension under drying such as discussed in 2ection '.'.* o this paper. This is evidenced by the ollowing recipe rom 6ennini (a 1*th 6enturycratsman# which uses an oil which is not highly hydroscopic:

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8f you $ant it more transparent# ta"e some clear and ne linseed oil; andsmear it $ith some of this oil on a piece of cotton. et it dry thoroughly# forthe space of several days (Thompson, 1A+, p. 1"#.

$n 1th 6entury <ngland, <dwards a amous bookbinder, in 1!* devised anew process o producing transparent parchment by steeping ordinaryparchment in a solution o potassium carbonate and drying it by pressing itbetween two wooden boards without any orm o stretching (Reed, 1!*, p.

!#.

4. Chemical Pro!erties

The lime bath and mechanical dehairing in the preparation o parchment leavesthe animal skins consisting almost entirely o collagen bres. These bres arecomposed o long chains o amino acidsC mainly glycine, proline, hydroxyproline.6hemical bonds between these chains maintain the bre structure and render itinsoluble in cold water (-oods, 1*, p. """#.

6ollagen will dissolve in water on heating i it has been exposed to prolonged

treatment with acid or alkali (such as the liming process# which causes breaks inthe intermolecular bonds (-oods, 1*, p. """#.

-hen heated to A*o6 or unprocessed skins or **A+o6 or limed skins, theintermolecular amino acid chains shrink to about onethird o their original length,causing the collagen to become rubbery in texture. 3n boiling in water, the aminoacids chains separate and go into solution orming gelatin (-oods, 1*, p. """#.

%archment re4uires the natural bre weave o the skin to be changed to ahoriEontally layered structure by applying tension to the skin. (-oods, 1*, p"""#-hen the wet skin is mechanically stretched, it rearranges the bres into thelayered structure and the drying o the gelatin keeps the bres there. 5s wet skindries in the air, water is lost rom between the bres within the skin and the highsurace tension draws the bres together. 5dBacent bre suraces rmly stick toeach other, causing a translucent and rigid sheet. 9uring parchment production,tension is applied to the wet skin, causing the water to be orced out rom betweenthe bres. 2paces between bres remain and the dry skin is 0exible and opa4ue(-oods, 1*, p. """#.

a. 'ura$ility

The main reason or the permanence o parchment is its ability to absorb orrelease water vapour to the atmosphere. 5 sheet o ordinary parchment (nothaving any surace treatments reerred to in 2ection '.# contains about 1+Ko its weight as water at a relative humidity o *+K. (Reed, 1!*, p. "#.

1. High +elative Humidity

$ the atmosphere becomes damp at around !+K L +K relativehumidity the water content in the parchment will increase to about"*K. /owever this is a slow process since two to ve days in re4uiredor this to occur. $ this happens, the parchment sheets will cockle and

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then become sot and limp reverting to the wet pelt state with the losso the characteristic layered arrangement o the bres. 2imilar resultswould occur i the parchment comes into prolonged contact with li4uidwater (Reed, 1!*, p. '#.

2ome o the treatments used on the manuscripts were designed tominimise this orm o damage by sealing the pores o the parchmentand incorporating traces o alum, ats or vegetable tannins into the

bre network (Reed, 1!*, p. '#.

2. Lo, +elative Humidity

%rolonged exposure to an environment under +K relative humiditywill dry out parchment and bring its water content to below 1+K. 3nceagain this is a slow process which may take several months or years.%rolonged exposure to this environment will turn the parchment harderand harsher, eventually cracks would appear in the surace and theinks and paints will detach (Reed, 1!*, p. #.

3nce again some o the medieval pretreatments minimised the rate owater absorption or loss. To counter the efects o alum, attysubstances and vegetable tannins (described in section .1.1#, somehydroscopic substances were introduced included gum arabic, honey,parchment glue and egg white (Reed, 1!*, p. #.

5. Summary

%archment plays an important process in the history o writing and recordinghuman evolution. The processes by which parchment is made and used areextremely complex but also extremely efective as evidenced by the diferentnumber o unctions it was used or and the 4uantity o manuscripts that are still inexistence today.

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6. *i$liogra!hy

*ykova0 #1 21 (1'#. 8edieval %ainting on %archment: preservation M restoration.Restaurator, 1('#, 11!.

Cains0 3nthony1 (1"#. The vellum o the 7ook o &ells. The %aper 6onservator,1A, *+A1.

Cennini0 Cennino d%3ndrea1 (1''#. 6ratsmanFs /andbook @$l Hibro dellF5tre@. Thompson, 9. ?. (Trans.# =ew Nork: 9over. (3riginal work published 1'!#

Clark0 Harry1 (1!#. 2pecial Report: the restoration o manuscripts at <uropeOsoldest library. -ilson Hibrary 7ulletin, *'(#, A"+A"1.

#ansser0 31 (1*+#. <arly /istory o Tanning. 6iba Review, 1, "'"A".

Hunter0 'ard1 (1'#. %apermaking: the history and techni4ue o an ancient crat.=ew Nork: 9over %ublications.

4enyon0 5rederic #1 (1'"#. 7ooks and Readers in 5ncient )reece and Rome.Hondon: 3xord 6larendon %ress.

4ireyeva0 Vilena1 (1#. <xamination o %archment in 7yEantine 8anuscripts.Restaurator, "+, '!.

+eed0 +onald1 (1!"#. 5ncient 2kins %archments M Heathers. Heeds: 2eminar%ress.

+eed0 +onald1 (1!*#. The =ature and 8aking o %archment. Heeds: <lmete %ress.

+udin0 *o1 (1+#. %aper or notP %apyrus, tapa, amate, rice paper and parchment.8aking %aper, a look into the history o an ancient crat. Tanner, Roger ). (trans.#?allingby, 2weden: Rudins, 11+.

S/c/e!ano,ska0 Hanna 6 West 5it/hugh0 &lisa$eth1 (1#. Jourteenthcentury documents o the &nights o 2t. Iohn o Ierusalem: analysis o inksparchment and seals. %aper 6onservator, "', 'A*.

Wheelock0 Mary &1 (1"#. %aper: its history and development, 6hicago:5merican Hibrary 5ssociation.

Woods0 Chris1(1*#. 6onservation Treatments or %archment 9ocuments. Iournal o the2ociety o 5rchivists, 1A("#, ""1"'.

the history and technology of parchment making

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