The History and

Technology of Parchment
Making
1

Meliora di Curci
1. Introduction
There have been many different materials used as writing media throughout the
history of human evolution. These have included stones, clay tablets, bricks, bark,
wood, papyrus, linen, wax tablets, metal, ivory, bone, leather and paper (Reed,
1972, p. 1).
In the recent times, the three main forms of writing media used above all else are
papyrus, parchment and paper. This paper will concentrate mainly on parchment
but will discuss the overlap of the other two forms where applicable.
a. What is Parchment?
Parchment is the processing of animal skins to produce a hard, durable,
white material of even opacity and uniform thickness which will take
pigments, inks and dyes in a suitable manner for writing (Kenyon, 1932, p.
87). Parchment is a specially prepared skin which is not tanned (Gansser,
1950, p. 2941).
The animal skins are wet, covered in a lime solution, the hair removed, the
skins placed back in the lime, the lime then washed off and the wet skin
stretched and dried. While drying a number of different pre-treatments such
as pumice and chalk were sometimes rubbed into the surface of the wet skin
(Hunter, 1943, p. 14).
Vellum versus Parchment
There appears to be conflicting reports as to the definitions of these terms.
Some authorities state that parchment made only from calfskin is known as
vellum, while all other animals form parchment (Wheelock, 1928, p. 5). Other
authorities state that vellum specifically refers to uterine parchment (Rudin,
1990, p. 10). Other authorities state that vellum refers to high quality
parchment only. Reed (1975, p. 79) sums up this dilemma best when he
states both terms seem equally valid. To avoid confusion, this paper only
uses the term parchment, except when directly quoting another source.
2. History
a. Leather and Skin
As early as the late Assyrian period (8th Century BC) the inhabitants of
Mesopotamia preferred animal hides to clay tablets for writing, and
according to Herodotus, wrote on unhaired sheep and goat skins (Gansser,
1950, p. 2941). Inscriptions from Denderah state: after the finding of
decayed leather rolls from the days of King Kheops (c. 2575 BC) (Reed, 1972,
p. 4).

The simplified tanning process used to make leather (see section 3.1)
created difficulties in drying the wet leather to a smooth, flat sheet free of
wrinkles and undulations (Reed, 1975, p. 40) which detracted from their
widespread use, leaving papyrus the dominant writing media (Reed, 1975, p.
37).
Wheelock (1928, p. 4) refers to a manuscript on the Sorbonne of Paris that
was apparently written on tanned human skin. This item has not been
corroborated by any other readings for this paper.
b. Parchment
In the second century BC a library was set up at Pergamum in Asia Minor by
King Eumenes II. Pliny wrote in his Natural History, Book XIII, passage XXI:
Subsequently, also according to Varro, when owing to the rivalry between
King Ptolemy and King Eumenes about their libraries, Ptolemy suppressed
the export of Papyrus, parchment was invented at Pergamum and afterwards
the employment of the material on which the immortality of human beings
depends, spread indiscriminately." (Reed, 1975, p7)
The significant innovation at Pergamum was that by simplifying the liquor
bath and drying the pelt in a stretched state, it led to the creation of
extremely durable, smooth taut sheets of uniform opacity of a pale colour
known as parchment (Reed, 1975, p. 43).
In 1909 two parchment documents were discovered at Avroman in Kurdistan,
which bear dates equivalent to 88 BC and 22BC. Also in 1923 excavations at
the site of the Roman fortress of Dura discovered more parchment
documents which correspond to the dates of 189-196 BC. This leads some
authorities to believe that parchment was in use before the time of the
Pergamum library, and the Pergamum simply refined the process (Kenyon,
1932, p. 89).
Towards the end of the first century BC, parchment began to increase in
popularity due to the availability of off cuts to be used for ephemera such as
tags and labels (Reed, 1975, p. 47). Other advantages of parchment over
papyrus was its flexibility and the fact that both sides of the parchment could
be written on. Also the writing was easier to read and corrections easier to
make (Reed, 1972, p. 5). By the third century AD, parchment was the
preferred writing medium for all purposes (Reed, 1975, p. 53).
c. Scroll versus Codex
In the early Roman period single sheets were generally used for ephemera
such as speech drafts or memoranda, but until 200 AD texts of any
appreciable length were on scrolls (Reed, 1975, p. 58). Papyrus and
parchment scrolls were constructed in similar manners but whereas papyrus
was merely glued together, the parchment sheets were stitched. The
parchment scrolls therefore had a stronger join and were more durable
(Reed, 1975, p. 58).
3

During the first two centuries AD the scroll gradually disappeared in favour of
the codex. Kenyon (1932, p. 119) believes that scrolls were used by pagan
religions and the codex was brought to prominence by the early Christian
religions. Reed (1972, p. 5) believed that the ease in which parchment can
be made into a codex (while papyrus was not structural suitable) could be
the main reason, but then in 1975 (p. 58) Reed believed the reasons for this
are more obscure; either way they are certainly outside the realm of this
paper.
d. Specialised Parchment Types
Due to the range of tasks that parchment was required for, a number of
specialised parchment types came into being.
1. Uterine Parchment
During the middle ages, some parchment was made from the skins of
unborn animals. In the animal foetus, the skin develops early so that at
a tender age it has a well-formed dermal network which is both thin
and strong. It also has minimal if any hair to be removed. Due to these
properties, uterine parchments were highly regarded as quality
materials (Reed, 1975, p. 76). Uterine parchments could have easily
been made from sheep, goats and calves, but due to the small sizes of
these skins, calves were the main material used, as they retained the
largest cutting area (Reed, 1975, p. 77).
2. Goldbeater's Parchment
Goldbeater's parchment was made from the caecum of cattle intestine.
This form of parchment was processed and formed the same as
ordinary parchment, It is however thin, tough, resilient and can stretch
without breaking. Goldbeaters use it to separate sheets of gold when
building a block which can then be hammered into finer leaves of gold
(Reed, 1975, p. 77).
3. Transparent Parchment
There was a requirement for transparent forms of parchment in the
scriptoria for scribes to use as "tracing paper" for tracing decorative
elements when illuminating manuscripts. Transparent parchment has
also been used in spectacles, magnifying glasses and as a window
material when glass was not available (Reed, 1975, p. 85).
e. Introduction of Paper
Up to about 1520 AD parchment remained popular and the trade guilds
supplied sufficient quantities for book producers, but at this time, paper and
printing from movable type had become firmly established (Reed, 1975, p.
95). Even after the advent of wood-block printing and moveable metal type,
parchment did continue to be used (Hunter, 1943, p. 16) but mainly as a
binding material to cover paper books. Even this trade died out in the 17th
4

Century as these bindings were considered to be too plain. Reed (1975, p.

95) sums up the current usage of parchment as follows:
Parchment continues to be made, being used for legal documents, archival
records, warrants and certificates, but its total production is now very slight
and, apart from copies of historically important texts, literary works are
rarely committed to its surface.
3. Technology
a. Early Tanning Process
An 800 BC Sumerian account gave the following for dressing a fresh ox-hide:
This skin, you will take it, Then you will drench it in pure pulverised Nisaba
flour, in water, beer and first quality wine, With the best fat of pure ox, the
alum of the land of the Hittites, and oak galls, you will press it and you will
cover the bronze kettle-drum with it(Reed, 1976, p. 25).
And a Carchemish text of about 600 BC reads:
You will steep the skin of a young goat with the milk of a yellow goat and
with flour, you will anoint it with pure oil, ordinary oil and fat of a pure cow,
You will soak the alum in grape juice and then cover the skin with gall nuts
(Reed, 1975, p. 25).
Early tanners appear to use a very simple done liquor baths approach to
tanning skins. The bath generally contained warm aqueous solutions of
vegetable matter consisting of twigs, stalks, leaves, nuts and fruit of soft
green plants and/or wood, bark and galls of shrubs and trees (Reed, 1975, p.
26). The plant matter would ferment naturally and the enzymes produced
would break down the plant carbohydrates to smaller organic substances
such as lactic or acetic acids (Reed, 1975, p. 26). The bath served three
processes:
1. Dehairing: The enzymes in the liquor bath loosened the base of the
hair follicles, allowing the hair to be easily and mechanically removed
(Reed, 1975, p. 28).
2. Loosening: The enzymes also loosened and digested some of the other
substances in the dermal network which effectively cleaned the pelt
and allowed individual fibres to expand by absorbing the organic acids
from the bath (Reed, 1975, p. 28).
3. Cleaning: The fermentation of the vegetable matter produces carbon
dioxide gas within the fibre network of the pelt which, when rising to
the surface of the bath, further help to clean the pelt (Reed, 1975, p.
28).
When the pelts were removed from the liquor bath, the hair was
scraped off with a knife. Similarly the flesh side was scraped clean and
5

smooth (Reed, 1975, p. 28). The vegetable tannins produced by the

liquor bath introduced chemical links between the larger fibres of
collagen in the dermal network which turned the skins into tanned
leather (Reed, 1975, p. 29).
b. Tanned Parchment
The majority of parchments up to 200BC appear to have been formed in the
same manner as the tanned leather above, with the addition of the fact that
the wet pelt was stretched for drying. Whenever liquor baths of fermenting
vegetable matter were used, there was some chance that the resulting
parchment would be vegetable-tanned (Reed, 1975, p. 43).
It was only when the pelt preparation baths were simplified by excluding
materials rich in vegetable tannin, that the parchments manifested
properties different to leather (Reed, 1975, p. 43).
c. Parchment Making Process
According to Reed (1975, p. 72) the first known text on parchment making is
the Lucca Manuscript written in a Northern Italian monastery in the 8th
Century AD:
How parchment is to be prepared: place [the skin] in lime water and leave it
there for a few days. Then extend it on a frame and scrape it on both sides
with a sharp knife and leave it to dry (Codex 490).
Theophilus, a 12th Century scholar has a more detailed set of instructions:
Take goat skins and stand them in water for a day and a night. Take them
and wash them until the water runs clear. Take an entirely new bath and
place therein old lime and water mixing well to form a thick cloudy liquor.
Place the skins in this, folding them on the flesh side. Move them with a pole
two or three times each day, leaving them for eight days (and twice as long
in winter). Next you must withdraw the skins and unhair them. Pour off the
contents of the bath and repeat the process using the same quantities,
placing the skins in the lime liquor and moving them once each day over
eight days as before. Ten take them out and wash well until the water runs
quite clean. Place them in another bath with clean water and leave them
there for two days. Then take them out, attach cords and tie them to the
circular frame. Dry, then shave them with a sharp knife after which leave
them for two days out of the sun. Moisten with water and rub the flesh side
with powdered pumice. After two days wet it again by sprinkling with a little
water and fully clean the flesh side with pumice so as to make it quite wet
again. Then tighten up the cords, equalise the tension so that the sheet will
become permanent. Once the sheets are dry, nothing further remains to be
done. (Reed, 1975, p. 74).
1. Choice of skin

A wide variety of skins seemed to have been used to make parchment,

predominantly calf, sheep and goat. Reed (1975, p. 19) states that and
goat skins were preferred to be used as actual manuscript leaves while
pigs or hog skin was used for bindings. However, Szczepanowska
(1999, p. 38) carried out an analysis of a sample of 14th Century books
of edicts from the Order of St John; all parchments examined were
determined to have been made from goat skins only.
Reed (1975, p. 76) quotes a dialogue between two 15th Century French
Monks:
In my skin are the prayers and all the blessings made to Holy Church
And have not calves, goats, kids, Coneys, hares and cats skin? As
vellum they may be well written upon? To be sure their parchment is
worth more than your skin which serves you less.
Reed (1975, p. 76) quotes a 10th Century text from Cordova, Spain:
parchment from the inner layers of deer and gazelle skinsKenyon
(1932, p. 86) also refers to a practice of using antelope skin.
2. Soaking the Skin
The first step in creating parchment, is to wet or soak the recently
flayed skin in water. This process removes blood, dung and other
organic matter, but it also wets all parts of the skin to allow easier
penetration of the dehairing liquor (Reed, 1975, p. 80). In modern
practice this soaking is carried out as rapidly as possible, finishing off
with running water to minimise the loss of skin fibres by any bacterial
action which might result from the use of static baths (Reed, 1975, p.
80).
3. The Liquor Bath
It is not known when lime was first used in the preparation of skins,
(Gansser, 1950, p. 2944) but it is apparent from the Lucca manuscript
that they were used by the 8th Century AD. However, there appears to
be no evidence that these lime baths had replaced the earlier method
of using baths of fermenting vegetable matter (Reed, 1975, p. 80).
Indeed, the Book of Kells an 8th Century calfskin parchment shows no
evidence of being placed in a lime bath, or even that any form of acid
or alkali was used in its preparation (Cains, 1992, p. 54).
The purpose of the lime bath is to soften and dissolve the epidermal
layer that lines the hair follicles thus making the hair easier to remove
(Cains, 1992, p. 50). There also appears to be some evidence that
urine was used as an alternative to lime to complete this task
(Gansser, 1950, p. 2941).

According to Reed (1975, p. 81) the dehairing liquors would have been
contained in wooden or hollowed out stone vats of approximately 2
metres long, 1 metre wide and 1 metre deep. Reed also states that
these vats would have contained one or two dozen skins at a time.
Metal vats would not have been used due to the potential of metalstaining the skins.
As lime is only slightly soluble in water, the lime baths are relatively
weak. However, they are still very efficient and dangerous to human
skin; hence Theophilus' instruction to use wooden poles to move the
skins around to ensure a uniform reaction within the lime bath (Reed,
1975, p. 81).
4. Removing the Hair
The skins were removed from the bath and, while still wet, were
draped over a wooden or stone beam. The loosened hair could be
removed using a metal or stone knife. Reed (1975, p. 81) believes that
the hair was so loose that it could be pushed off with the hands,
provided they were protected by stout gloves.
5. Resoaking and rewashing
Reed (1972, p. 81) considers the second lime bath suggested by
Theophilus to be a sound practice as the action of lime on the dermal
fibre network layer is slow. He believes that if the time devoted to
liming is curtailed, then the skin may be uneven in character, thus
difficult to stretch evenly which leads to parchment of variable colour
and opacity.
However, if the skin is left in the lime baths too long, then the fibre
network may become too weak, developing holes in the dermal layer
and the skin may not be able to withstand the stretching required for
parchment (Reed, 1972, p. 81).
Reed (1972, p. 82) also states that plain lime baths are too slow for
commercial modern production of parchment and leather and the lime
is now augmented by the addition of sodium sulphide into the bath.
After the second lime bath, the skin is well washed in running water to
remove any traces of lime left adhering to the skin. Any residual lime
can cause the same problems as if the skin was left lying in the lime
solution (Reed, 1972, p. 82).
6. Stretching
When the skin is removed from the liquor bath, the fibre network is
runs in all directions and is very meshed. If the fibres have not been
excessively tanned, the fibre network may be stretched when drying.
This leads to a number of the fibres being broken under tension when

drying and this allows the remaining fibres to become aligned into
layers parallel to the grain (Reed, 1975, p. 44).
The stretching is accomplished with the aid of smooth pebbles of stone
which were pressed around the edge of the wet skin. One end of stout
cords were tied around the pebbles and the other end attached to a
drying frame, thus the skin could be dried under tension (Reed, 1975,
p. 82).
The frame was usually an open form which allowed both surfaces to be
worked on at the same time. Both sides of the skin were scraped with a
sharp knife to smooth the surface and produce a sheet of uniform
thickness. Mostly the work was carried out on the flesh side, as the
grain side merely needed any remaining fine hairs to be removed
(Reed, 1975, p. 82). The knife does not cut through the skin, but rather
pushes and separates the softened fat, flesh and gland tissue from the
tougher collagen fibre (Cains, 1992, p. 50).
If the skin is not placed under sufficient tension, rougher grains and
transparent regions may develop in the dried parchment (Reed, 1975,
p. 84).
7. Drying
During the drying process, the decomposed collagen glue also dries to
a firm consistency and sets the layers of fibres into the stretched
condition; the fibres cannot revert to their former relaxed state. Reed
(1975, p. 44) sums up the process thusly:
This results in a highly stressed sheet which is smooth, strong,
relatively inelastic, light in colour, yet opaque: a material which may
properly be called parchment.
d. Pre-use treatments
Before the parchment was used by the scribes, it usually underwent a
number of pre-treatments to improve smoothness and ability to absorb the
correct amount of inks and colours (Reed, 1975, p. 87). Other desirable
attributes were to increase whiteness of the surface, remove stains and
drops of fluid and to enhance grain patterns if required (Reed, 1972, p. 147).
1. Pouncing
Pouncing is the rubbing of pumice powder into the flesh side of the
parchment in order to produce a smooth, silky nap to which the inks
will adhere. It also allows the inks to penetrate deep into the fibres
which adds to the permanence of the writing. As this treatment
requires the parchment to be damp while the pumice is applied, it
needs to be conducted while the parchment is still on the drying frame
(Reed, 1975, p. 88).

2. Stanchgrain
Stanchgrain is the common name given to a variety of thin pastes
comprised of varying quantities of lime, quicklime, flour, egg white and
milk. When these pastes are rubbed into the parchment surface with a
damp cloth, they produced an extremely smooth, hard, even, white
appearance. The varieties of as stanchgrain were believed to create
parchments of outstanding quality (Reed, 1975, p. 91).
3. Other treatments
The variety of treatments for parchment can be simple or complex and
are designed for a number of different reasons; to prevent ink from
running, to even out the surface or to whiten the appearance (Reed,
1975, p. 90).
The running of ink and poor adhesion of ink were thought to be due to
an excess of grease left in the parchment after the lime bath, hence a
number of different solutions were devised to remove the grease at
this stage of the process. These treatments were mainly composed of
calcium compounds such as lime, chalk or woodash and were applied
as either dry powders or wet pastes (Reed, 1975, p. 90).
Szczepanowska (1999, p. 39) analysed a sample of 14th Century books
from the Order of St John; the calcium carbonate in the samples of
ground were identified as a mixture of calcite (CaCO3) and vaterite; a
form of CaCO3 that rarely occurs in nature. Szczepanowska believes
the presence of vaterite may indicate that the calcite used for the pretreatments was of artificial origin.
4. Colouring Parchment
Clark (1979, p. 620) quotes a 5th Century vulgate Bible currently
housed in the Capitular Library of Verona which was written on crimson
vellum, which has since aged to purple; thus it is not safe to assume all
parchments were white.
Cennini, a 15th Century craftsman provides recipes to tint parchment a
variety of colours including purple, indigo, green red and peach. He
was also aware of the changes this would wrought in the parchment,
and so offers the following advice:
When you want to tint kid parchment, you should first soak it in spring
or well water until it gets all wet and soft. Then, stretching it over a
board, like a drum skin, fasten it down with big-headed nails, and
apply the tints to it in due course, as described above.(Thompson,
1960. p. 10)
5. 3.4.5 Byzantine Pre-treatments

10

Byzantine parchment is characterised by a glossy smooth surface. It is

believed that Greek parchment-makers polished it thoroughly and used
egg-white and flax-seed and to obtain such an effect (Bykova, 1993, p.
188).
Unfortunately, there are no historical documents on the methods to
manufacture parchment in medieval Greece are known. Kireyeva
(1999, p. 40) confirmed with thin-layer chromatography that egg-white
and linseed extract were used to coat the parchment on a sample
amount of Byzantine manuscripts dating from 11th to 14th centuries
AD. Dried albumen is very fragile and required the linseed extract to
give the treatment the elasticity and strength necessary for a surface
coating. As it is obvious that the treatment was applied more thickly on
the flesh side of the parchment, it is assumed this was to make the two
sides indistinguishable for use (Kireyeva, 1999, p. 41).
Only one other surface treatment was found by Kireyeva (1999, p. 42)
consisted of a coating of collagen glue, casein and lead white. It has
been assumed that this was applied by 14th Century Byzantine
Parchment-makers in Constantinople.
e. Transparent Parchment Process
Mostly transparent parchment seemed to be used in the scriptorium based
on the number of recipes provided by the monasteries. One such 15th
Century recipe is:
To make parchment as though it were glass take a thin parchment preferably
from a kid slain which is already reasonably transparent. If you can find such
a parchment scrape it with a knife as thinly as possible. Then soak the
scraped parchment in the whites of eggs which have been allowed to go
rotten, or in a watery solution of gum Arabic in a fish glue which has been
diluted with water or in a glue made by filtering through a cloth or a glue
made from the shavings of this or any other parchment.
Then, when the parchment has been softened in one of the above ways,
stretch it on a frame as you stretch parchments normally after taking the
pelt from the lime bath. When the parchment is dry it is ready. But when it
seems after drying that it had insufficient of the liquor, take a sponge
moistened with the latter and smear the parchment on both sides until you
think it is all right. And then if you place the parchment over any picture the
latter is clearly visible through it and you can draw upon the parchment a
true likeness of the picture you wish to copy (Reed, 1975, p. 85).
This particular recipe recommends that to make the parchment transparent
it should be rubbed with highly hydroscopic substances, but Reed (1975, p.
85) believed that the transparency may have been more influenced by the
lack of tension under drying such as discussed in Section 3.3.5 of this paper.
This is evidenced by the following recipe from Cennini (a 15th Century
craftsman) which uses an oil which is not highly hydroscopic:

11

If you want it more transparent, take some clear and fine linseed oil; and
smear it with some of this oil on a piece of cotton. Let it dry thoroughly, for
the space of several days (Thompson, 1960, p. 12).
In 18th Century England, Edwards a famous bookbinder, in 1785 devised a
new process of producing transparent parchment by steeping ordinary
parchment in a solution of potassium carbonate and drying it by pressing it
between two wooden boards without any form of stretching (Reed, 1975, p.
87).
4. Chemical Properties
The lime bath and mechanical dehairing in the preparation of parchment leaves
the animal skins consisting almost entirely of collagen fibres. These fibres are
composed of long chains of amino acids; mainly glycine, proline, hydroxyproline.
Chemical bonds between these chains maintain the fibre structure and render it
insoluble in cold water (Woods, 1995, p. 222).
Collagen will dissolve in water on heating if it has been exposed to prolonged
treatment with acid or alkali (such as the liming process) which causes breaks in
the intermolecular bonds (Woods, 1995, p. 222).
When heated to 65oC for unprocessed skins or 55-60oC for limed skins, the
intermolecular amino acid chains shrink to about one-third of their original length,
causing the collagen to become rubbery in texture. On boiling in water, the amino
acids chains separate and go into solution forming gelatin (Woods, 1995, p. 222).
Parchment requires the natural fibre weave of the skin to be changed to a
horizontally layered structure by applying tension to the skin. (Woods, 1995, p222)
When the wet skin is mechanically stretched, it rearranges the fibres into the
layered structure and the drying of the gelatin keeps the fibres there. As wet skin
dries in the air, water is lost from between the fibres within the skin and the high
surface tension draws the fibres together. Adjacent fibre surfaces firmly stick to
each other, causing a translucent and rigid sheet. During parchment production,
tension is applied to the wet skin, causing the water to be forced out from between
the fibres. Spaces between fibres remain and the dry skin is flexible and opaque
(Woods, 1995, p. 222).
a. Durability
The main reason for the permanence of parchment is its ability to absorb or
release water vapour to the atmosphere. A sheet of ordinary parchment (not
having any surface treatments referred to in Section 3.4) contains about 10%
of its weight as water at a relative humidity of 50%. (Reed, 1975, p. 92).
1. High Relative Humidity
If the atmosphere becomes damp at around 70% 80% relative
humidity the water content in the parchment will increase to about
25%. However this is a slow process since two to five days in required
for this to occur. If this happens, the parchment sheets will cockle and
12

then become soft and limp reverting to the wet pelt state with the loss
of the characteristic layered arrangement of the fibres. Similar results
would occur if the parchment comes into prolonged contact with liquid
water (Reed, 1975, p. 93).
Some of the treatments used on the manuscripts were designed to
minimise this form of damage by sealing the pores of the parchment
and incorporating traces of alum, fats or vegetable tannins into the
fibre network (Reed, 1975, p. 93).
2. Low Relative Humidity
Prolonged exposure to an environment under 40% relative humidity
will dry out parchment and bring its water content to below 10%. Once
again this is a slow process which may take several months or years.
Prolonged exposure to this environment will turn the parchment harder
and harsher, eventually cracks would appear in the surface and the
inks and paints will detach (Reed, 1975, p. 94).
Once again some of the medieval pre-treatments minimised the rate of
water absorption or loss. To counter the effects of alum, fatty
substances and vegetable tannins (described in section 4.1.1), some
hydroscopic substances were introduced included gum arabic, honey,
parchment glue and egg white (Reed, 1975, p. 94).
5. Summary
Parchment plays an important process in the history of writing and recording
human evolution. The processes by which parchment is made and used are
extremely complex but also extremely effective as evidenced by the different
number of functions it was used for and the quantity of manuscripts that are still in
existence today.

13

6. Bibliography
Bykova, G. Z. (1993). Medieval Painting on Parchment: preservation & restoration.
Restaurator, 14(3), 188-197.
Cains, Anthony. (1992). The vellum of the Book of Kells. The Paper Conservator,
16, 50-61.
Cennini, Cennino d'Andrea. (1933). Craftsman's Handbook "Il Libro dell'Atre".
Thompson, D. V. (Trans.) New York: Dover. (Original work published 1437)
Clark, Harry. (1979). Special Report: the restoration of manuscripts at Europes
oldest library. Wilson Library Bulletin, 53(9), 620-621.
Gansser, A. (1950). Early History of Tanning. Ciba Review, 81, 2938-2962.
Hunter, Dard. (1943). Papermaking: the history and technique of an ancient craft.
New York: Dover Publications.
Kenyon, Frederic G. (1932). Books and Readers in Ancient Greece and Rome.
London: Oxford Clarendon Press.
Kireyeva, Vilena. (1999). Examination of Parchment in Byzantine Manuscripts.
Restaurator, 20, 39-47.
Reed, Ronald. (1972). Ancient Skins Parchments & Leathers. Leeds: Seminar
Press.
Reed, Ronald. (1975). The Nature and Making of Parchment. Leeds: Elmete Press.
Rudin, Bo. (1990). Paper or not? Papyrus, tapa, amate, rice paper and parchment.
Making Paper, a look into the history of an ancient craft. Tanner, Roger G. (trans.)
Vallingby, Sweden: Rudins, 1-10.
Szczepanowska, Hanna & West Fitzhugh, Elisabeth. (1999). Fourteenthcentury documents of the Knights o f St. John of Jerusalem: analysis of inks
parchment and seals. Paper Conservator, 23, 36-45.
Wheelock, Mary E. (1928). Paper: its history and development, Chicago:
American Library Association.
Woods, Chris.(1995). Conservation Treatments for Parchment Documents. Journal of the
Society of Archivists, 16(2), 221-238.

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