Parchment is the writing material that we almost automatically associate to the Middle Ages. Hundreds of thousands of manuscripts and charters written on parchment have been preserved up to the present, and that is possible because this material is a extraordinarily resilient. In this segment, we will see what exactly parchment is, how it is differential from vellum, how it is made, and some of its properties. And we will conclude with the most luxurious varieties of purple diet parchment and those so to say, recycled parchments or palimpsests. Although we associate parchment with the Middle Ages, parchment is not a medieval invention. According to Pliny, the invention of parchment is due to King Eumenes the second of Pergamon during the second century B.C., but actually, the use of parchment is much older, much, much older, going back in time to the first Egyptian dynasties although in lesser quantities than papyrus. However, the term parchment, pergamenum in Latin, appears quite late in our sources, seems up to the third century A.D., the name with which it is referred to is membrana, thus, membrane. Another name to refer to this material is vellum. Originally, vellum is a parchment made from the hide of the calf, vitulus in Latin. But as it happens, it is extraordinarily difficult to assess when hides used were made from calves or other animals. And as a result, the words vellum and parchment have become exchangeable and depend on the local preferences. In other languages, the difference between parchment and vellum might be a little bit different, in Spanish for instance, Vitela, which is equivalent to the English vellum, is reserved for high quality parchment, very white, thin, and soft no matter what species it comes from. Although, as a matter of fact, it almost always is calf skin. Maybe our productive discussion in the forum could be how the two words and their translations are used in their countries. From animal skin to parchment or vellum, the hide undergoes a quite complicated process that from very old times demanded a high degree of professionalisation and therefore, we find parchment tears or parchment makers in primary sources from at least the ninth century A.D. A parchment tear who wish to achieve high quality product started choosing skins without wounds or scars and if possible, of a light and uniform color, otherwise, the parchment would retain at least a glimpse of the changes in shade. If the animal had not been appropriately blooded at the time it was slaughtered, blood accumulated in the capillaries would leave very characteristic marks in the parchment. The first operation was then washing the hide in cold, clean water, running water if possible. When the hide starts rotting, the hairs will start falling and spontaneously. In warm climates, it would be possible to let the skins in the sun in order to accelerate the process but the normal practice was to submerge them in lime water during sunny days. Afterwards, the hide underwent a series of operations, which had the purpose of completely removing the epidermis and hypodermis and stretch a part of dermis called reticular layer. The first of these operations was setting the hide on a wooden bench, hair side upwards, and with a long curve knife, the parchment maker removed the hairs and if possible, also the outer layer of the skin. If the skin was still greasy, it would go back to the lime bath for some time. And after that, the parchment maker works out the inner side in a similar way he have done with the outer side, removing all residues of flesh and grease that could remain out there to the hide. And when he is satisfied with the result, he rinses it in clean water in order to wash off the rest of lime. And so, the first and dirtiest phase of the process comes to an end and the second one starts, it will be in the second phase when the skin is finally turned into parchment. The hide has to soak is extended on a wooden frame as tense as possible. In order to adjust just the tension, the frame has been provided with the wooden pegs from which the skin is hung by means of kind of bottoms made with pebbels dropped in the borders of the hide. Then holding the frame against a wall with his foot, the parchment maker starts scraping the hide with a special blunt knife in the shape of a semi circle called lunellum because this shape resembles a crescent moon, luna in Latin. The goal of this operation is scrapping away the outer and inner layers. As the process advances, the parchment maker adjusts the tension of the skin, turning the wooden pecks. And once he is satisfied with the result, he will let the skin dry in the sun still hanging on its frame. While the hides is been stripped any cut, however small it might be, any accidental fissure made on the skin will grow more conspicurous in the shape of circular or oval wholes. If the parchment maker discovers them soon enough, will try to sow them in order to prevent them from growing. When everything is already dry, the scrubbing process resume, this time, mostly on the hair side, in order to eliminate the glossy texture that would prevent the ink to fix, and also in order to reduce the thickness of the leaf. And only when he is totally satisfied, the parchment maker can cut off the parchment from the frame. But the product is not yet ready. Our last operation remains, and that is polishing the leaves with pumice and wrap them with chalk or dipson, and only then the parchment is at last ready to be sold. Prices fluctuated enormously and so did qualities. These dependent, of course, on the skills of the parchment tier but also on the original quality of the hides. In general, it can be stated that junk animal still did other parchment. On the contrary, it is very dangerous to determine from what species are certain piece of parchment comes from, unless one has the advantage of a DNA analysis. But there are nuances that can give us some clues. Calf vellum tends to be whitish and of better quality, goat turns to grey, and sheep to yellowish. Another clue can be found by examining the hair follicles, within bovines are shallower. If we turn now to the inner side of the leaf, we will observe that it is whiter than the exterior and tends to convex carbon outwards naturally, this tendency being more prominent in low quality parchments. Quite often, we will find defective hides which nevertheless has been utilized in the manuscripts. The defects can be cuts or holes that occur during a moment of destruction of the parchment maker or a wound of the animal. Some of these have been meticulously repaired in different ways and even donned with colored treads. If the book towards the parchment was destined was meant to be a luxurious product, the parchment could be dyed and afterwards returned with ink's of gold and silver. In these cases, the cost of the book would be really astronomical and not just because of the gold and silver but because the purple in which the leaves were dyed, if it was tyrian purple, could reach prices higher than gold. These codices are known under the generic nomination of codices porpurei. They were relatively common from the fourthth century onwards and apparently they have imperial associations. At the other end of the spectrum, we find a palimpsest or codices scripting which are just manuscripts that are reusing the parchment from previous ones after removing the writing. The way the writing was cleaned off from the leaves so that these could be re-used has been described in a manuscript originally written in Tegernsee and now preserved in the library of Munich. It goes like this. In an already used parchment, if you want to write again, forced by need, take milk and smear within the surface and let it rest like that during the whole night. Then after spreading flour on it leave it under a weight to prevent it from wrinkling when it starts drying and wait until it is completely dry. Then, once you have done all these, polish it with pumice and chalk and it will recover its pristine whiteness. Among all the preserved parchments or codices or script, probably the most relevant ones are there Ciceronian treaties De Republica by the Kano's Latino's 5757. The Cicernous institutionalise of the cathedral of Verona upload these comedies now in Milan. Until the beginnings of the 20th century in order to render that primitive script or descriptive inferior readable, scholars used chemical reagents such as garlic acid that in the long term have severally damaged the parchments. Fortunately, this procedure has been abandoned in the present and in its place, the leaves are photographed under ultraviolet light and then arbitrary restorations follows.
