Product Code Database
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. (2025). 9780810839229, Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810839229 Vellum is prepared for writing and printing on single pages, , and codex (books).
Modern scholars and experts often prefer to use the broader term "membrane", which avoids the need to draw a distinction between vellum and parchment. (2025). 9780801438639, Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801438639 It may be very hard to determine the animal species involved (let alone its age) without detailed scientific analysis.
Vellum is generally smooth and durable, but there are great variations in its texture which are affected by the way it is made and the quality of the skin. The making involves the cleaning, bleaching, stretching on a frame (a "herse"), and scraping of the skin with a crescent-shaped knife (a "lunarium" or "lunellum"). To create tension, the process goes back and forth between scraping, wetting and drying. Scratching the surface with pumice, and treating with lime or chalk to make it suitable for writing or printing ink can create a final look.
Modern "paper vellum" is made of plant cellulose fibers and gets its name from its similar usage to actual vellum, as well as its high quality. It is used for a variety of purposes including tracing, technical drawings, plans and . Tracing paper is essentially the same thing, though the quality level differs, sometimes greatly.
The word "vellum" is borrowed from Old French vélin 'calfskin', derived in turn from the Latin word vitulinum 'made from calf'. However, in Europe, from Roman times, the word was used for the best quality of prepared skin, regardless of the animal from which the hide was obtained. calfskin, sheep, and kidskin were all commonly used, and other animals, including pig, deer, donkey, horse, or camel were used on occasion. The best quality, "uterine vellum", was said to be made from the skins of stillbirth or unborn animals, although the term was also applied to fine quality skins made from young animals. However, there has long been much blurring of the boundaries between these terms. In 1519, William Horman could write in his Vulgaria: "That stouffe that we wrytte upon, and is made of beestis skynnes, is somtyme called parchement, somtyme velem, somtyme abortyve, somtyme membraan."William Horman, Vulgaria (1519), fol. 80v; cited in Ustick 1936, p. 440. Writing in 1936, Lee Ustick explained that:
French sources, closer to the original etymology, tend to define velin as from calf only, while the British Standards Institution defines parchment as made from the split skin of several species, and vellum from the unsplit skin.Young, Laura, A., Bookbinding & conservation by hand: a working guide, Oak Knoll Press, 1995, , Google books In the usage of modern practitioners of the artistic crafts of writing, illuminating, lettering, and bookbinding, "vellum" is normally reserved for calfskin, while any other skin is called "parchment".Edward Johnston (1906 et seq.) Writing, Illuminating, and Lettering; Lamb, C.M. (ed.)(1956) The Calligrapher's Handbook; and publications of Society of Scribes & Illuminators
The hair follicles may be visible on the outer side, together with any scars from when the animal was alive. The membrane can also show the pattern of the animal's vein network called the "veining" of the sheet.
Any remaining hair is removed ("scudding") and to dry it out the skin is attached to a frame (a "herse") at points around the edge with cords, which is then wrapped by the part next to these points around a pebble (a "pippin"). The skin is then cleaned with a crescent-shaped knife, (a "lunarium" or "lunellum") removing any remaining hairs.
The skin is thoroughly cleaned and processed into sheets once it is completely dry. Many sheets can be extracted from a single piece of skin. The number of sheets depends on the size of the skin and the required length and breadth of each individual sheet. For example, the average calfskin could provide roughly three and a half medium sheets of writing material. Sheet amount can be doubled by folding the skin into two conjoined leaves, also known as a bifolium. Historians have found evidence of manuscripts where the scribe wrote down the medieval instructions, which is now followed by modern vellum makers.Thompson, Daniel. "Medieval Parchment-Making". The Library 16, no. 4 (1935). The makers rubbed the sheets with a round, flat object ("pouncing") to ensure that the ink would adhere to the surface. Even so, some types of ink would gradually flake off as the membrane was folded, rolled, or rubbed.
A quarter of the 180-copy edition of Johannes Gutenberg's first Gutenberg Bible printed in 1455 with movable type was also printed on vellum, presumably because his market expected this for a high-quality book. Paper was used for most book-printing, as it was cheaper and easier to process through a printing press and to bookbinding. The twelfth-century Winchester Bible was also written on approximately 250 calfskins.
In art, vellum was used for paintings, especially if they needed to be sent long distances, before canvas became widely used in about 1500, and continued to be used for drawings, and . Old master prints were sometimes printed on vellum, especially for presentation copies, until at least the seventeenth century.
Limp vellum or limp-parchment bindings were used frequently in the 16th and 17th centuries, and were sometimes gilding but were also often not embellishment. In later centuries vellum has been more commonly used like leather, that is, as the covering for stiff board bindings. Vellum can be stained virtually any color but seldom is, as a great part of its beauty and appeal rests in its faint grain and hair markings, as well as its warmth and simplicity.
Lasting in excess of 1,000 years—for example, Pastoral Care (Troyes, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 504), dates from about 600 and is in excellent condition—animal vellum can be far more durable than paper. For this reason, many important documents are written on animal vellum, such as diplomas. Referring to a diploma as a "sheepskin" alludes to the time when diplomas were written on vellum made from animal hides.
Today, because of low demand and complicated manufacturing process, animal vellum is expensive and hard to find. The only UK company still producing traditional parchment and vellum is William Cowley (established 1870), which is based in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire. A modern imitation is made of cotton. Known as paper vellum, this material is considerably cheaper than animal vellum and can be found in most art and drafting supply stores. Some brands of writing paper and other sorts of paper use the term "vellum" to suggest quality.
Vellum is still used for Jewish scrolls, of the Torah in particular, for luxury bookbinding, memorial books, and for various documents in calligraphy. It is also used on instruments such as the banjo and the bodhran, although synthetic skins are available for these instruments and have become more commonly used.
The Catholic Church still issues its decrees and Diploma for its officials on vellum.
|
|
