While it is common knowledge that materials derived from animals may be used in the manufacture of everyday items such as clothing and bags, it may be surprising to some that the skin of cows, sheep and goats were in fact the primary ingredients for books created throughout antiquity. The term parchment refers to the skin of an animal specifically prepared to make a suitable writing support. The word is said to have been derived from the ancient Greek city of Pergamon (or Pergamum) in modern day Turkey. It is there where parchment was said to have been invented by its ruler, Eumenes II, in the 2nd century B.C.E., when Egypt unleashed a trade embargo on papyrus. However, substantial evidence shows that the use of animal skin as a writing support predates Eumenes II and Pergamon, with the earliest documents written on animal skin dating up to the 24th century B.C.E. in ancient Egypt.
Fig. 1., ‘Scudding’ process
By the 4th century C.E., parchment had largely replaced papyrus as the preferred writing support across the known world, a trend which persisted up till the introduction of paper in the West via Arab traders, and the invention of the printing press. However, even with the organised production and popularisation of paper in 15th century Europe, parchment continued to be used widely, especially in the production of manuscripts commissioned for the wealthy elite. Books made from parchment were seen as luxury items. This may be attributed to the extraordinarily durable nature of the material, which, under the right conditions, is able to last for over a millennium, as well as its intensely laborious manufacturing process. The preparation of parchment is a time-consuming and complicated process, one that involves numerous, carefully executed steps:
Fig. 2., Skin specimen on a herse
- Skin the animal.
- Thoroughly clean the skin specimen in water.
- Soak the skin specimen in a lime solution to loosen the hair.
- De-hair the skin specimen. This is achieved by manually pulling out the hair, and later through a process known as ‘scudding’, wherein the parchment-maker would work the skin with a gently curved, two-handle blade (see fig. 1.).
- Wash the skin again to prepare it for the next step.
- Dry the skin specimen under tension. This is achieved through a process of stretching the skin on a frame called a ‘herse’ (see fig. 2.). This is an especially crucial step in the preparation as the skin tends to shrink while it dries.
- Scrape the skin specimen. While the drying skin specimen is stretched on the frame, the parchment-maker would work on it with a crescent-shaped blade known as a ‘lunarium’ or ‘lunellum’ (‘little moon’ in English, with reference to the shape of the tool) (see fig. 3.). The skin specimen is to be worked on both sides: The ‘hair-side’ is worked to remove any remaining hair from the outer layer of the skin specimen, while the ‘flesh-side’ is worked to remove any remaining fat and flesh from the inner surface of the skin specimen.
- When the skin specimen has completely dried, it is ready to be cut into sheets of parchment.
Fig. 3., Parchment maker working with a lunellum
While the mass manufacturing and use of parchment has effectively ended, with paper being the universal medium of writing today, it has seen a revival in the contemporary age especially among artists and scholars who seek to recreate and study medieval traditions.
Bibliography
Clanchy, M.T. “Parchment And Paper: Manuscript Culture 1100-1500”. A Companion To The History Of The Book, Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose, Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp. 194-207, Accessed 20 Mar 2021.
Clemens, Raymond, and Timothy Graham. Introduction To Manuscript Studies. Cornell University Press, 2007, pp. 9-12.
Diringer, David. The Book Before Printing: Ancient, Medieval And Oriental. Dover Publications, Inc., 1982, p. 172.
Goldman, David. A Is For Ox. Silver Moon Press, 1994, p. 26.
Johnson, Richard R. “Ancient And Medieval Accounts Of The “Invention” Of Parchment”. California Studies In Classical Antiquity, vol 3, 1970, pp. 115-122. University Of California Press, doi:10.2307/25010602.
Kwakkel, Erik. “Parchment (The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly)”. Khan Academy.
Image Sources
Fritz (Fritz) Pyrmetter (Pyrmetter; Permeter; Pergamenter) , Pyrmetter (Pergamentmacher). 1425, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13131505. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.
Huculak, J. Matthew. Goat Skin On Drying Rack For Parchment Paper. 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49349226. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.
van der Sluijs, Peter. Making Parchment. 2012, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18256693. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.
Prepared by Muhammad Khaizuran Bin Rashid