Vellum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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.
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[edit] Manuscripts
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. Unborn calf-skin is still the preferred type for Torah scrolls today. 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.
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.
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.
Lasting in excess of 1000 years - this book, 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.
[edit] 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 1,000 years.
