Vellum (from the Old French Vélin, for "calfskin"^[1]) is a sort of parchment, a material for the pages of a book or codex, characterized by its thin, smooth, durable properties. Strictly speaking, vellum should only be made from calf-skin, but the term early on was used for the best quality of parchment regardless of the animal from which the skin came. There is also modern imitation "vellum" made out of cotton, although a small amount of true vellum is still made. The term can also refer to a manuscript or book written on such material. Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories corresponding roughly to the northern half of modern France and parts of Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300 A.D. It was known at the time as the langue doïl to distinguish it from the langue... German parchmenter, 1568 Parchment is a material for the pages of a book or codex, made from fine calf skin, sheep skin or goat skin. ... A page is one side of a leaf of paper. ... A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. ... First page of the Codex Argenteus A codex (Latin for block of wood, book; plural codices) is a handwritten book, in general, one produced from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages. ... Cotton ready for harvest. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ...

A vellum deed with seal tag dated 1638.

Vellum was originally a translucent or opaque material produced from calfskin that had been soaked, limed, and scudded (a depilatory process), and then dried at normal temperature under tension, usually on a wooden device called a stretching frame. However, animal vellum can include any material made from calfskin, sheepskin, or virtually any other skin obtained from a relatively small animal, e.g., antelope. The terms vellum and parchment became confused early on; traditionally the former was made from an unsplit calfskin, and consequently had a grain pattern on one side (unless removed by scraping), while the latter was produced from the flesh split of a sheep or goat or other kind of skin, and consequently had no grain pattern. The important distinction between vellum (or parchment) and leather is that the former is not tanned but is prepared essentially by soaking the skin in lime and drying it under tension. Image File history File linksMetadata 1638vellumlarge. ... Image File history File linksMetadata 1638vellumlarge. ... An English deed written on fine parchment or vellum with seal tag dated 1638. ... Seal on envelope A seal is an impression printed on, embossed upon, or affixed to a document (or any other object) in order to authenticate it, in lieu of or in addition to a signature. ... Events March 29 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. ... In optics, transparency is the property of being transparent, or allowing light to pass. ... A substance or object that is opaque is neither transparent nor translucent. ... Look up material in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Vellum (from the Old French Vélin, for calfskin[1]) is a sort of parchment, a material for the pages of a book or codex, characterized by its thin, smooth, durable properties. ... It has been suggested that Portlandite be merged into this article or section. ... Sheepskin is the hide of a sheep, sometimes also called lambswool. ... Rawhide is a hide or animal skin that has not been exposed to tanning and thus is much lighter in color than treated animal hides. ... Genera Aepyceros Alcelaphus Antidorcas Antilope Cephalophus Connochaetes Damaliscus Gazella Hippotragus Kobus Madoqua Neotragus Oreotragus Oryx Ourebia Pantholops Procapra Sylvicapra Taurotragus Tragelaphus and others Antelope are herbivorous mammals of the family Bovidae, often noted for their horns. ... Modern leather-working tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Manuscripts

The earliest painted Self-Portrait (1493) by Albrecht Dürer; originally executed in oil on vellum, now transferred to linen. Louvre, Paris

Most medieval manuscripts, whether illuminated or not, were written on vellum. The very best quality, Uterine vellum, was made from the skins of still-born or even unborn animals. Some Gandharan Buddhist texts were written on vellum. A quarter of the 180 copy edition of Johannes Gutenberg's first Bible printed in 1455 with movable type was also printed on vellum, presumably because his market expected this for a high-quality book. Paper soon took over for most book-printing, as it was cheaper and easier to handle through a printing-press. Download high resolution version (580x739, 35 KB)Albrech Dürer, Selbstportät mit Blume, 1493 Self-Portrait with flowers, Oil on canvas, 57 x 45 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. ... Download high resolution version (580x739, 35 KB)Albrech Dürer, Selbstportät mit Blume, 1493 Self-Portrait with flowers, Oil on canvas, 57 x 45 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. ... Albrecht Dürer (pronounced /al. ... This article is about the museum. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... In the strictest definition of illuminated manuscript, only manuscripts decorated with gold or silver, like this miniature of Christ in Majesty from the Aberdeen Bestiary (folio 4v), would be considered illuminated. ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... The Gandhāran Buddhist Texts are the earliest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered, and indeed the earliest Indian manuscripts yet discovered. ... Movable metal type, and composing stick, descended from Gutenbergs invention Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (c. ... A copy of the Gutenberg Bible, this version owned by the U.S. Library of Congress The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, and as the Mazarin Bible) is a print of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz... A case of cast metal type pieces and typeset matter in a composing stick Movable type is the system of printing and typography using movable pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches. ... A blank sheet of paper Paper is a commodity of thin material produced by the amalgamation of fibers, typically vegetable fibers composed of cellulose, which are subsequently held together by hydrogen bonding. ... Printing press from 1811, photographed in Munich, Germany. ...

In art, vellum was used widely 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 watercolours. Old master prints were sometimes printed on vellum, especially for presentation copies, until at least the seventeenth century. For building painting, see painter and decorator. ... Look up Canvas in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Drawing is a visual art which makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. ... Watercolor is a painting technique making use of water-soluble pigments that are either transparent or opaque and are formulated with gum to bond the pigment to the paper. ... The term Old Master Print is used to describe works of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition (European or New World). ...

Limp vellum or limp-parchment bindings were used frequently in the 16th and 17th centuries, and were sometimes gilt but were also often not embellished. 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. Embellishment is a term used in sewing and crafts. ...

Lasting in excess of 1000 years - Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care (Troyes, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 504), for example dates from about 600 and is in excellent condition - animal vellum can be far more durable than paper. For this reason, many important documents have been written on animal vellum, such as diplomas. Indeed, referring to a diploma as a "sheepskin" alludes to the time when diplomas were written on vellum made from animal hides. Start of the main text; the first three lines are also in coloured ink, which has run or faded. ...

Modern use

Today, due to low demand and complicated manufacturing process, animal vellum is expensive and hard to find. A modern imitation is made out 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. Usually translucent, paper vellum is often used in applications where tracing is required, such as architectural plans. Some brands of writing-paper and other sorts of paper use the term "vellum" merely to suggest quality; the paper is actually completely normal.

British Acts of Parliament are still printed on (real, not cotton) vellum for archival purposes.^[2] Another example of a document written on vellum is the Irish bog psalter, discovered in July 2006 in a bog in Ireland, after over 1000 years. In Westminster System parliaments, an Act of Parliament is a part of the law passed by the Parliament. ... An early mediaeval Christian psalter (prayer book) was discovered in a bog in July 2006, in the townland of Faddan More in north County Tipperary, Ireland[1]. It is estimated to have been in the bog for between 1,000 and 1,200 years, but the book itself has yet... Lütt-Witt Moor, a bog in Henstedt-Ulzburg in northern Germany. ...

References

1. ^ Online Etymological Dictionary
2. ^ BBC report on Parliament's continued use of vellum

See also

• Golden Fleece

Jason returns with the golden Fleece on an Apulian red-figure calyx krater, ca. ...

External links

• On-line demonstration of the preparation of vellum from the BNF, Paris. Text in French, but mostly visual.

• Contains advice on cleaning of vellum