Parchment

History

The utilization of parchment – processed animal skins – was predominantly employed during the Middle Ages, a term used by scholars to delineate the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance (fifth century C.E. to the fifteenth century C.E.), as the main writing support. However, legends and references to the substrate in literary texts suggest that it may have been employed several centuries earlier than originally perceived. The creation story of parchment as a suitable writing material is a highly contested subject, supporting the uncertainty of when humans transformed the function of animal skins into a writing material. According to scholars, Raymond Clemens & Timothy Graham, the creation of parchment is attributed to King Eumenes II of Pergamum and the use of the substrate dates back to the second century BC. In contrast, scholar Robert Deibert strays away from delineating the first recorded use of parchment, blanketly stating that the material was employed sparingly during the fourth and fifth centuries. Nonetheless, historians and scholars concur that parchment was utilized as the principal support for writing beginning in the fifth century after the fall of the Roman Empire until the advent of paper in the fourteenth century. The rise of parchment as the paramount writing source during the Middle Ages can be attributed to a variety of factors, such as the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century C.E.

Images

The production of parchment relied upon an extraordinarily rich social fabric: craftsman, parchmenter, illuminators, farmers, miners, merchants and scholars. It also relied upon a society that consumed books: monks, priests, humanists, and the men and women who made up medieval society. Therefore, manuscripts contain more information than the texts written on them. Thus, I employed this understanding and framework when examining the rare manuscripts, Liber ethicorum Aristotelis [Image 1] and Apparatus super constitutionibus Concilii Viennensis [Image 2]. [Image 1] is bound in blind-stamped dark brown morocco and comprised of seventy-one leaves. The sheets are tinted a yellowish color, with dark areas spread sporadically across the page. At first, this discoloration resembled grime or stains.