Editing Parchment

{{Short description|Writing material made from animal skins}}
{{For|the cellulose-based composite used in baking|Parchment paper}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Parchment from goatskin.jpg|right|thumb|Central European (Northern) type of finished parchment made of [[goatskin (material)|goatskin]] stretched on a wooden frame]]
[[File:קלף, נוצה ודיו.jpg|thumb|Parchment with a quill and ink]]

'''Parchment''' is a [[writing material]] made from specially prepared [[Tanning (leather)|untanned]] skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for more than two millennia. By AD 400 most literature intended for preservation began to be transferred from [[papyrus]] to parchment. ''[[Vellum]]'' is a finer-quality parchment made from the skins of young animals such as lambs and young calves.
The generic term '''''animal membrane''''' is sometimes used by libraries and museums that wish to avoid distinguishing between parchment and vellum.

==Etymology and origin==
The word is derived from the [[Koinē Greek]] city name, ''Pergamum'' (or ''Pergamon'', modern [[Bergama]]) in [[İzmir Province|western Anatolia]], where parchment was supposedly first developed around the second century BCE, probably as a substitute for [[papyrus]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=parchment (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/parchment |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |language=en}}</ref>

== Parchment and vellum ==
Today the term ''parchment'' is often used in non-technical contexts to refer to any animal skin, particularly [[goat]], [[sheep]] or [[cow]], that has been scraped or dried under tension. The term originally referred only to the skin of sheep and, occasionally, goats. The equivalent material made from calfskin, which was of finer quality, was known as ''[[vellum]]''<ref name="York-2017">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/975367720 |title=The Bible Illuminated: How Art Brought the Bible to an Illiterate World |date=2017 |publisher=Museum of the Bible Books |editor-first=Karen |editor-last=York |isbn=978-1-945470-12-7 |location=Franklin, TN |pages=5 |oclc=975367720}}</ref> (from the [[Old French]] {{Lang|fro|velin}} or {{Lang|fro|vellin}}, and ultimately from the [[Latin]] {{Lang|la|vitulus}}, meaning a calf);<ref>{{cite book|last=Thomson|first=Roy|title=Conservation of Leather and Related Materials |year=2007 |publisher=Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann|location=Amsterdam|isbn=978-0-7506-4881-3|edition=Repr}}</ref> whilst the finest of all was ''uterine vellum'', taken from a calf [[foetus]] or [[stillbirth|stillborn]] calf.

Some authorities have sought to observe these distinctions strictly: for example [[lexicographer]] [[Samuel Johnson]] in 1755 and master [[calligrapher]] [[Edward Johnston]] in 1906.<ref>{{cite book |first=Edward |last=Johnston |author-link=Edward Johnston |year=1906 |title=Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering |url=https://archive.org/details/writingillumina00john |place=London |publisher=John Hogg }}</ref> However when old books and documents are encountered it may be difficult, without scientific analysis, to determine the precise animal origin of a skin, either in terms of its species or in terms of the animal's age.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=Cains |chapter=The surface examination of skin: a binder's note on the identification of animal species used in the making of parchment |title=The Book of Kells: proceedings of a conference at Trinity College Dublin, 6–9 September 1992 |editor-first=Felicity |editor-last=O'Mahony |publisher=Scolar Press |place=Aldershot |year=1994 |isbn=0-85967-967-5 |pages=172–4 }}</ref> In practice therefore there has long been considerable blurring of the boundaries between the different terms. In 1519 [[William Horman]] wrote in his ''Vulgaria'': "That {{Not a typo|stouffe}} that we {{Not a typo|wrytte}} upon, and is made of {{Not a typo|beestis}} {{Not a typo|skynnes}}, is {{Not a typo|somtyme}} called {{Not a typo|parchement}}, {{Not a typo|somtyme}} {{Not a typo|velem}}, {{Not a typo|somtyme}} {{Not a typo|abortyve}}, {{Not a typo|somtyme}} {{Not a typo|membraan}}."<ref>William Horman, ''Vulgaria'' (1519), fol. 80v; cited in {{harvnb|Ustick|1936|p=440}}</ref> In [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]'' (written {{c.}}1599–1602) the following exchange occurs:
{{blockquote|''Hamlet.'' Is not parchment made of sheepskins?<br />
''Horatio.'' Ay, my lord, and of calves' skins too.<ref>{{Folger inline|Ham|5|1|116–117}}</ref>}}

Lee Ustick, writing in 1936, commented:
{{blockquote| To-day the distinction, among collectors of manuscripts, is that ''vellum'' is a highly refined form of skin, ''parchment'' a cruder form, usually thick, harsh, less highly polished than vellum, but with no distinction between skin of calf, or sheep, or of goat.{{sfn|Ustick|1936|p=440}}}}

It is for these reasons that many modern [[Conservator-restorer|conservators]], [[librarian]]s and [[archivist]]s prefer to use either the broader term ''parchment'' or the neutral term ''animal membrane''.{{sfn|Stokes|Almagno|2001|p=114}}{{sfn|Clemens|Graham|2007|pp=9–10}}

== History ==
[[File:Permennter-1568.png|thumb|upright|German parchmenter, 1568]]
The word parchment evolved (via the Latin {{Lang|la|pergamenum}} and the French {{Lang|fr|parchemin}}) from the name of the city of [[Pergamon]], which was a thriving center of parchment production during the [[Hellenistic period]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-04-04 |title=parchment |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/parchment |access-date=2023-05-05 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref> The city so dominated the trade that a legend later arose that said that parchment had been invented in [[Pergamon]] to replace the use of [[papyrus]], which had become monopolized by the rival city of [[Alexandria]]. This account, originating in the writings of [[Pliny the Elder]] (''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', Book XIII, 69–70), is almost assuredly false because parchment had been in use in [[Anatolia]] and elsewhere long before the rise of Pergamon.<ref>{{cite book |last=Green |first=Peter |title=Alexander to Actium: the historical evolution of the Hellenistic age |url=https://archive.org/details/alexandertoactiu0000gree |url-access=registration |place=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |year=1990 |isbn=0520056116 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alexandertoactiu0000gree/page/168 168] }}</ref><ref name=metzger>{{Cite book |last=Metzger |first=Bruce |title=The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration |date=2005 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |edition=4th |pages=8 |language=EN}}</ref>

[[Herodotus]] mentions writing on skins as common in his time, the 5th century BC; and in his ''Histories'' (v.58) he states that the Ionians of Asia Minor had been accustomed to give the name of ''skins'' ({{Lang|grc-latn|diphtherai}}) to books; this word was adapted by Hellenized Jews to describe scrolls.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/parchmen.html |title=Parchment |author=Meir Bar-Ilan |website=Bar-Ilan University – Faculty Members Homepages |access-date=2005-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050422080330/http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/parchmen.html |archive-date=2005-04-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Writing on prepared animal skins had a long history in other cultures outside of the Greeks as well. [[David Diringer]] noted that "the first mention of Egyptian documents written on leather goes back to the [[Fourth Dynasty of Egypt|Fourth Dynasty]] (c. 2550–2450 BC), but the earliest of such documents extant are: a fragmentary roll of leather of the [[Sixth Dynasty of Egypt|Sixth Dynasty]] (c. 24th century BC), unrolled by Dr. H. Ibscher, and preserved in the [[Cairo Museum]]; a roll of the [[Twelfth dynasty of Egypt|Twelfth Dynasty]] (c. 1990–1777 BC) now in Berlin; the mathematical text now in the [[British Museum]] (MS. 10250); and a document of the reign of [[Ramses II]] (early thirteenth century BC)."<ref>[[David Diringer]], ''The Book before Printing: Ancient, Medieval and Oriental'', Dover Publications, New York 1982, p. 172.</ref> Civilizations such as the [[Assyria]]ns and the [[Babylonians]] most commonly impressed their [[cuneiform]] on clay tablets, but they also wrote on parchment from the 6th century BC onward.<ref name="Rennicks-2022">{{Cite web |last=Rennicks |first=Rich |date=2022-12-29 |title=The History Of Vellum And Parchment |url=https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/the-history-of-vellum-and-parchment |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326023304/https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/the-history-of-vellum-and-parchment |archive-date=2023-03-26 |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=The New Antiquarian |publisher=[[Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America]]}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source, a blog post, is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]). Additional sources should be added to back this information up.|date=May 2024}}

By the fourth century AD, in cultures that traditionally used papyrus for writing, parchment began to become the new standard for use in manufacturing important books, and most works which wished to be preserved were eventually moved from papyrus to parchment.<ref name="metzger" />

In the later [[Middle Ages]], especially the 15th century, parchment was largely replaced by [[paper]] for most uses except luxury manuscripts, some of which were also on paper.<ref name="Rennicks-2022" /> New techniques in paper milling allowed it to be much cheaper than parchment; it was made of textile rags and of very high quality.<ref>{{Citation |last=Bloom |first=Jonathan M. |title=Papermaking: The Historical Diffusion of an Ancient Technique |date=2017 |work=Mobilities of Knowledge |pages=51–66 |editor-last=Jöns |editor-first=Heike |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-44654-7_3 |access-date=2025-05-14 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-44654-7_3 |isbn=978-3-319-44654-7 |editor2-last=Meusburger |editor2-first=Peter |editor3-last=Heffernan |editor3-first=Michael}}</ref> Following the arrival of [[printing]] in the later fifteenth century AD, the supply of animal skins for parchment could not keep up with the demands of printers.<ref name="Rennicks-2022" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source, a blog post, is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]). Additional sources should be added to back this information up.|date=May 2024}}

[[File:NLW Penrice and Margam Deeds 204 front (8634702372).jpg|thumb|left|Latin [[Grant (money)|grant]] dated 1329, written on fine parchment or [[vellum]], with [[Seal (emblem)|seal]]]]

There was a short period during the introduction of printing where parchment and paper were used at the same time, with parchment (in fact vellum) the more expensive luxury option, preferred by rich and conservative customers. Although most copies of the [[Gutenberg Bible]] are on paper, some were printed on parchment; 12 of the 48 surviving copies, with most incomplete. In 1490, [[Johannes Trithemius]] preferred the older methods, because "handwriting placed on parchment will be able to endure a thousand years. But how long will printing last, which is dependent on paper? For if ... it lasts for two hundred years that is a long time."<ref>Quoted in David McKitterick, ''Print, Manuscript, and the Search for Order'' [[Cambridge University Press]], 2003</ref> In fact, high-quality paper from this period has survived 500 years or more very well, if kept in reasonable library conditions.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

==Modern use==
Parchment (or vellum) continues to be used for ritual or legal reasons.  [[Rabbinic literature]] traditionally maintains that the institution of employing parchment made of animal hides for the writing of ritual objects,<ref>Maimonides, Hilkhoth Tefillin 1:3.</ref> as detailed below. In the United Kingdom, Acts of Parliament are still printed on vellum.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Why is the UK still printing its laws on vellum? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35569281 |date=15 February 2016 |magazine=BBC News magazine}}</ref>

The heyday of parchment use was during the medieval period, but there has been a growing revival of its use among artists since the late 20th century. Although parchment never stopped being used (primarily for governmental documents and diplomas) it had ceased to be a primary choice for artists' supports by the end of the 15th century [[Renaissance]]. This was partly due to its expense and partly due to its unusual working properties. Parchment consists mostly of [[collagen]]. When the water in paint media touches the parchment's surface, the collagen melts slightly, forming a raised bed for the paint, a quality highly prized by some artists.
[[File:Sachsenspiegel.jpg|thumb|right|upright|A 1385 copy of the [[Sachsenspiegel]], a German legal code, written on parchment with straps and clasps on the binding]]
Parchment is also extremely affected by its environment and changes in humidity, which can cause buckling. Books with parchment pages were bound with strong wooden boards and clamped tightly shut by metal (often brass) clasps or leather straps;<ref name="pul" /> this acted to keep the pages pressed flat despite humidity changes. Such metal fittings continued to be found on books as decorative features even after the use of paper made them unnecessary.<ref name="pul">{{cite web |url=http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/hb/cases/closures/index.html |title=Clasps, Furniture, and Other Closures |year=2004 |work=Hand Bookindings |publisher=Princeton University Library |access-date=4 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111208042037/http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/hb/cases/closures/index.html |archive-date=2011-12-08 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some contemporary artists prize the changeability of parchment, noting that the material seems alive and like an active participant in making artwork. To support the needs of the revival of use by artists, a revival in the art of preparing individual skins is also underway.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} Hand-prepared skins are usually preferred by artists because they are more uniform in surface and have fewer oily spots – which can cause long-term cracking of paint – than mass-produced parchment, which is usually made for lamp shades, furniture, or other interior design purposes.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

== Manufacture ==
Parchment is prepared from pelt&nbsp;– i.e. wet, unhaired,<ref name="York-2017" /> and limed skin&nbsp;– by drying at ordinary temperatures under tension, most commonly on a wooden frame known as a stretching frame.{{sfn|Reed|1972|}}

===Skinning, soaking, and dehairing===
After a carcass is [[Skinning|skinned]], the hide is soaked in water for about a day. This removes blood and grime and prepares the skin for a dehairing liquor.<ref name='reed75'>{{harvnb|Reed|1975}}</ref> The dehairing liquor was originally made of rotted, or fermented, vegetable matter, like beer or other liquors, but by the [[Middle Ages]] a dehairing bath included [[lime (mineral)|lime]]. Today, the lime solution is occasionally sharpened by the use of sodium sulfide. The liquor bath would have been in wooden or stone vats and the hides stirred with a long wooden pole to avoid human contact with the [[alkaline]] solution. Sometimes the skins would stay in the dehairing bath for eight or more days depending how concentrated and how warm the solution was kept – dehairing could take up to twice as long in winter. The vat was stirred two or three times a day to ensure the solution's deep and uniform penetration. Replacing the lime water bath also sped the process up. However, if the skins were soaked in the liquor too long, they would be weakened and not able to stand the stretching required for parchment.<ref name='reed75' />

=== Stretching ===
After soaking in water to make the skins workable, the skins were placed on a stretching frame. A simple frame with nails would work well in stretching the pelts. The skins could be attached by wrapping small, smooth rocks in the skins with rope or leather strips. Both sides would be left open to the air so they could be scraped with a sharp, [[blade#Patterns of knife blades|semi-lunar knife]] to remove the last of the hair and get the skin to the right thickness. The skins, which were made almost entirely of [[collagen]], would form a natural glue while drying and once taken off the frame they would keep their form. The stretching aligned the fibres to be more nearly parallel to the surface.

== Treatments ==
{{See also|Purple parchment}}
To make the parchment more aesthetically pleasing or more suitable for the [[scribe]]s, special treatments were used. According to Reed there were a variety of these treatments. Rubbing [[pumice]] powder into the flesh side of parchment while it was still wet on the frame was used to make it smooth and to modify the surface to enable inks to penetrate more deeply. Powders and pastes of calcium compounds were also used to help remove grease so the ink would not run. To make the parchment smooth and white, thin pastes (starchgrain or staunchgrain) of lime, flour, egg whites and milk were rubbed into the skins.<ref>See for example recipes in the [[Secretum Philosophorum]]</ref>

Meliora di Curci in her paper, "The History and Technology of Parchment Making", notes that parchment was not always white. "[[Cennino Cennini|Cennini]], a 15th-century craftsman provides recipes to tint parchment a variety of colours including purple, indigo, green, red and peach."{{sfn|di Curci|2003}} The Early medieval [[Codex Argenteus]] and [[Codex Vercellensis]], the [[Stockholm Codex Aureus]] and the [[Codex Brixianus]] give a range of luxuriously produced manuscripts all on [[purple vellum]], in imitation of Byzantine examples, like the [[Rossano Gospels]], [[Sinope Gospels]] and the [[Vienna Genesis]], which at least at one time are believed to have been reserved for Imperial commissions.

Many techniques for [[parchment repair]] exist, to restore creased, torn, or incomplete parchments.

=== Reuse ===
{{Main|Palimpsest}}
Between the seventh and the ninth centuries, many earlier parchment manuscripts were scrubbed and scoured to be ready for rewriting, and often the earlier writing can still be read. These recycled parchments are known as [[palimpsest]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brubaker |first=Leslie |title=Dictionary of the Middle Ages |date=1982 |publisher=Scribner |isbn=978-0-684-19073-0 |editor-last=Strayer |editor-first=Joseph Reese |volume=9 |location=New York |pages=355 |chapter=Palimpsest |editor-last2=Jordan |editor-first2=William C. |editor-last3=American Council of Learned Societies}}</ref>

== Jewish parchment ==
[[File:Torah and jad.jpg|thumb|right|A ''[[Sefer Torah]]'', the traditional form of the [[Hebrew Bible]], is a scroll of parchment.]]
{{See also|Gevil|Klaf|Duchsustus}}
The way in which parchment was processed (from hide to parchment) has undergone a tremendous evolution based on time and location. Parchment and vellum are not the sole methods of preparing animal skins for writing. In the [[Talmud|Babylonian Talmud]] ([[Bava Batra]] 14B), Moses is described as having written the first Torah Scroll on the unsplit cow-hide called ''[[gevil]]''.

Parchment is still the only medium used by traditional [[religious]] [[Jews]] for [[Sefer Torah|Torah scrolls]] or [[tefilin]] and [[mezuzah]]s, and is produced by large companies in [[Israel]]. This usage is [[Revelation at Sinai|Sinaitic]] in origin, with special designations for different types of parchment such as [[gevil]] and [[klaf]]. For those uses, only hides of [[kosher]] animals are permitted. Since there are many requirements for it being fit for the religious use, the liming is usually processed under supervision of a qualified [[Rabbi]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccdesigninc.com/MishmeresStam/Leaflet.pdf |title=Information Leaflet by Vaad Mishmereth Staam |website=CC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410134250/http://www.ccdesigninc.com/MishmeresStam/Leaflet.pdf |archive-date=10 April 2008}}</ref>

== Additional uses of the term ==
In some universities, the word parchment is still used to refer to the certificate (scroll) presented at graduation ceremonies, even though the modern document is printed on paper or thin card; although doctoral graduates may be given the option of having their scroll written by a calligrapher on vellum. [[Heriot-Watt University]] still uses goatskin parchment for their degrees.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

=== Plant-based parchment ===
{{See also|Parchment paper (baking)}}
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2018}}
'''Vegetable (paper) parchment''' is made by passing a waterleaf (an unsized paper like blotters) made of pulp fibers into [[sulfuric acid]]. The sulfuric acid hydrolyses and solubilises the main natural organic polymer, cellulose, present in the pulp wood fibers. The paper web is then washed in water, which stops the hydrolysis of the cellulose and causes a kind of cellulose coating to form on the waterleaf. The final paper is dried. This coating is a natural non-porous cement, that gives to the vegetable parchment paper its resistance to grease and its semi-translucency.

Other processes can be used to obtain grease-resistant paper, such as waxing the paper or using [[fluorine]]-based chemicals. Highly beating the fibers gives an even more translucent paper with the same grease resistance. Silicone and other coatings may also be applied to the parchment. A [[silicone]]-coating treatment produces a cross-linked material with high density, stability and heat resistance and low surface tension which imparts good anti-stick or release properties. [[Chromium]] salts can also be used to impart moderate anti-stick properties.

== Parchment craft ==
{{Main|Parchment craft}}
Historians believe that parchment craft originated as an art form in Europe during the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=parchment {{!}} writing material {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/parchment |access-date=2022-06-29 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Parchment craft at that time occurred principally in Catholic communities, where crafts persons created lace-like items such as devotional pictures and communion cards. The craft developed over time, with new techniques and refinements being added. Until the sixteenth century, parchment craft was a European art form. However, missionaries and other settlers relocated to South America, taking parchment craft with them. As before, the craft appeared largely among the Catholic communities. Often, young girls receiving their first communion received gifts of handmade parchment crafts.

Although the invention of the printing press led to a reduced interest in hand made cards and items, by the eighteenth century, people were regaining interest in detailed handwork. Parchment cards became larger in size and crafters began adding wavy borders and perforations. In the nineteenth century, influenced by French romanticism, parchment crafters began adding floral themes and cherubs and hand embossing.

Parchment craft today involves various techniques, including tracing a pattern with white or colored ink, embossing to create a raised effect, stippling, perforating, coloring and cutting. Parchment craft appears in hand made cards, as [[Scrapbooking|scrapbook]] embellishments, as bookmarks, lampshades, decorative small boxes, wall hangings and more.

== Technical analysis <span class="anchor" id="DNA testing"></span> ==
The [[radiocarbon dating]] techniques that are used on papyrus can be applied to parchment as well. They do not date the age of the writing but the preparation of the parchment itself.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Santos|first1=F.J.|last2=Gomez-Martinez|first2=I.|last3=Garcia-Leon|first3=M.|title=Radiocarbon dating of medieval manuscripts from the University of Seville|url=http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/75115/4/Radiocarbon%20dating.pdf|website=[[Digital.csic.es]]|access-date=2015-03-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304102317/http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/75115/4/Radiocarbon%20dating.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=live}}</ref> While it is feasibly possible also to radiocarbon date certain kinds of ink, it is extremely difficult to do due to the fact that they are generally present on the text only in trace amounts, and it is hard to get a carbon sample of them without the carbon in the parchment contaminating it.<ref>{{cite web|last=Stolte|first=D.|year=2011 |title=UA experts determine age of book 'nobody can read' |url=http://uanews.org/story/ua-experts-determine-age-book-nobody-can-read |access-date=2015-03-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404164910/http://uanews.org/story/ua-experts-determine-age-book-nobody-can-read|archive-date=2015-04-04|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

An article published in 2009 considered the possibilities of tracing the origin of medieval parchment manuscripts and codices through [[DNA]] analysis. The methodology would employ [[polymerase chain reaction]] to replicate a small DNA sample to a size sufficiently large for testing. The article discusses the use of DNA testing to estimate the age of the calf at the creation of the vellum parchment. A 2006 study revealed the genetic signature of several Greek manuscripts to have "goat-related sequences". Utilizing these techniques we may be able to determine whether related library materials were made from genetically related animals (perhaps from the same herd) and locate the vellum's origination.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stinson |first=Timothy L. |title=Knowledge of the Flesh: Using DNA Analysis to Unlock Bibliographical Secrets of Medieval Parchment |journal=The Papers of the Bibliographical Society |volume=103 |number=4 |date=2009 |pages=435–53 |doi=10.1086/pbsa.103.4.24293890|pmid=20607890 }}</ref>

In 2020, it was reported that the species of several of the animals used to provide parchment for the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] could be identified, and the relationship between skins obtained from the same animal inferred.{{sfn|Anava|Neuhof|Gingold|2020}} The breakthrough was made possible by the use of [[whole genome sequencing]].

== See also ==
* [[Bating (leather)]]
* [[Conservation and restoration of parchment]]
* [[Manuscript culture]]

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===
* {{cite journal |last1=Anava |first1=Sarit |last2=Neuhof |first2=Moran |last3=Gingold |first3=Moran|year=2020 |title=Illuminating Genetic Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls |journal=[[Cell (journal)|Cell]]|volume=181 |issue=6 |pages=1218–1231.e27 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.046 |pmid=32492404 |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite book |first1=Raymond |last1=Clemens |first2=Timothy |last2=Graham |title=Introduction to Manuscript Studies |publisher=Cornell University Press |place=Ithaca |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8014-3863-9 }}
* {{cite web |last=di Curci |first=Meliora |url=http://www.sca.org.au/scribe/articles/parchment.htm |title=The History and Technology of Parchment Making|date=2003 |publisher=Lochac College of Scribes}}
* {{cite book |last=Reed |first=Ronald |year=1972 |title=Ancient Skins, Parchments, and Leathers |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientskinsparc0000reed |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=Seminar Press |isbn=0-12-903550-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Reed |first=Ronald |year=1975 |title=The Nature and Making of Parchment |location=Leeds |publisher=Elmete Press |isbn=0950336726 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Stokes |first1=Roy Bishop |last2=Almagno |first2=R. Stephen |title=Esdaile's Manual of Bibliography |edition=6th |year=2001 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=London |isbn=0810839229 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=faqCpauRmRcC&pg=PA114}}
* {{cite journal |last=Ustick|first=W. Lee |title='Parchment' and 'vellum' |journal=[[The Library (journal)|The Library]]|series=4th ser. |volume=16 |issue=4 |year=1936 |pages=439–443 |doi=10.1093/library/s4-XVI.4.439 }}

== Further reading ==
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
* {{cite book |contribution=Parchment |last1=Bar-Ilan |first1=Meir |editor-first=Eric M. |editor-last=Meyers |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |volume=4 |isbn=0195112180 |pages=247–248 |url=https://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/articles/publications/publications0055.html |ref=none |access-date=2018-10-25 |archive-date=2021-10-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021132607/https://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/articles/publications/publications0055.html |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite journal |last=Dougherty |first=Raymond P. |year=1928 |title=Writing upon parchment and papyrus among the Babylonians and the Assyrians |journal=[[Journal of the American Oriental Society]]|volume=48 |pages=109–135 |doi=10.2307/593130 |jstor=593130|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Eisenlohr |first=Erika |editor-last=Lindgren |editor-first=Uta |contribution=Die Kunst, Pergament zu machen |title=Europäische Technik im Mittelalter: 800 bis 1400: Tradition und Innovation |edition=4th |year=1996 |publisher=Gebr. Mann Verlag |location=Berlin |isbn=3-7861-1748-9 |pages=429–432 |ref=none}}
*Holsinger, Bruce W. ''On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age.'' New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.
* {{cite book |last=Hunter |first=Dard |title=Papermaking: the history and technique of an ancient craft |url=https://archive.org/details/papermakinghisto0000hunt |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Dover Publications |year=1978 |orig-year=1947 |isbn=9780486236193|ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Murray |first=Fiona |title=Parchment craft |journal=Australian Paper Crafts |volume=23 |year=2003 |pages=10–13|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Colin H. |last2=Skeat |first2=T. C. |title=The Birth of the Codex |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |year=1983 |isbn=0-19-726024-1|ref=none}}
* {{cite journal|last=Ryder|first= Michael L. |year=1964 |title=Parchment: its history, manufacture and composition |journal=Journal of the Society of Archivists |volume=2 |issue=9 |pages=391–399 |doi= 10.1080/00379816009513778|ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Stinson |first=Timothy L. |year=2009 |title=Knowledge of the flesh: using DNA analysis to unlock bibliographical secrets of medieval parchment |journal=[[Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America]]|volume=103 |issue=4 |pages=435–453 |doi=10.1086/pbsa.103.4.24293890 |jstor=24293890 |pmid=20607890 |s2cid=37203626|ref=none}}
{{div col end}}

== External links ==
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Parchment}}
* {{Commons category-inline|Parchments}}
* [http://blog.nyhistory.org/parchment/ Preservation of 18th Century Parchment | "From the Stacks" at New-York Historical Society]
* [http://classes.bnf.fr/phebus/explo/index3b.htm On-line demonstration of the preparation of vellum] {{in lang|fr}}, [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]] – Text in French, but mostly visual

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Leather goods]]
[[Category:Book design]]
[[Category:Writing media]]
[[Category:Textual scholarship]]
[[Category:Leathermaking]]