Parchment

Parchment is a writing surface created from the specially treated, untanned hides of animals—mainly sheep, calves, and goats. For over two thousand years, it has served as a medium for writing in West Asia and Europe. By around 400 AD, many important written works in these regions had been moved from papyrus onto parchment. Vellum refers to a high-quality type of parchment made specifically from calfskin. Libraries and museums sometimes use the broader term "animal membrane" to avoid having to choose between calling something parchment or vellum.

In everyday use today, "parchment" often means any animal skin—especially from goats, sheep, or cows—that has been scraped and dried under tension. Originally, though, the word referred only to sheepskin and, occasionally, goatskin. The finer material made from calfskin was called vellum (from Old French *velin*, ultimately from Latin *vitulus*, meaning calf), and the very finest was known as uterine vellum. Many once believed this top grade came from a calf fetus or stillborn calf, but modern research on 13th-century pocket Bibles has found no evidence of that; instead, researchers think the higher quality came from a lost technique, not fetal hides. Some authorities, like lexicographer Samuel Johnson in 1755 and calligrapher Edward Johnston in 1906, tried to keep these distinctions strict. Yet when examining old books and documents, it is often difficult—without scientific testing—to tell the exact animal species or age of the skin. So in practice, the boundaries between terms have long been blurred. In 1519, William Horman wrote that the material "is somtyme called parchement, somtyme velem, somtyme abortyve, somtyme membraan." In Shakespeare’s *Hamlet*, Hamlet asks if parchment is made of sheepskins, and Horatio replies, "Ay, my lord, and of calves' skins too." By 1936, Lee Ustick noted that among manuscript collectors, vellum was seen as a highly refined skin, while parchment was cruder, thicker, harsher, and less polished—with no distinction between calf, sheep, or goat. For these reasons, many modern conservators, librarians, and archivists prefer the broader term "parchment" or the neutral "animal membrane."

The word "parchment" comes from the city of Pergamon (via Latin *pergamenum* and French *parchemin*), a major production center in the Hellenistic period. A later legend, from Pliny the Elder, claimed parchment was invented there to replace papyrus after Alexandria monopolized that material. This story is almost certainly false, since parchment was used in Anatolia and elsewhere long before Pergamon’s rise. Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, mentions writing on skins as common, and notes that the Ionians of Asia Minor called books "skins" (*diphtherai*), a term adopted by Hellenized Jews for scrolls. Other cultures also had long histories with prepared animal skins: David Diringer noted that Egyptian documents on leather are mentioned as early as the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2550–2450 BC), with extant examples including a fragmentary roll from the Sixth Dynasty, a Twelfth Dynasty roll, a mathematical text in the British Museum, and a document from Ramses II’s reign. The Assyrians and Babylonians mostly used clay tablets for cuneiform, but also wrote on parchment from the 6th century BC onward.

By the 4th century AD, in cultures that had traditionally used papyrus, parchment became the new standard for important books, and most surviving works were transferred from papyrus to parchment. The high cost of parchment compared to papyrus led to the loss of most ancient literature, and production of new works largely stopped until cheaper materials appeared, contributing to the early Middle Ages being called the Dark Ages. In the later Middle Ages, especially the 15th century, paper largely replaced parchment for most uses except luxury manuscripts—some of which were also on paper. New paper-milling techniques made paper much cheaper; it was made from textile rags and was very high quality. After printing arrived in the late 15th century, the supply of animal skins for parchment could not keep up with printers’ demands. For a short time, parchment and paper were used together, with parchment (actually vellum) being the more expensive luxury option, favored by rich and conservative customers. Most copies of the Gutenberg Bible are on paper, but some were printed on parchment; 12 of the 48 surviving copies are on parchment, most incomplete. In 1490, Johannes Trithemius preferred the older methods, arguing that "handwriting placed on parchment will be able to endure a thousand years. But how long will printing last..."