Surely parchment is a kind of paper?

Even in a shop specialising in graphic materials this is the sort of reaction I hear. Actually parchment is a relatively unknown material. Even if someone knows that parchment is made from animal skin, he may still have difficulty in knowing how to handle it through not appreciating its specific qualities. It seemed therefore that this introduction should commence at the absolute beginning.

I write about this subject on the basis of my studies in paleography and codicology at the University of Leiden. Further theoretical studies have considerably broadened my knowledge. In addition more than twenty years experience in making parchment myself has been of inestimable value.

It is not my intention to describe the various uses of parchment. This is the perogative of bookbinders, calligraphers, conservators, not forgetting printers and printmakers (Do the later realise what a fantastic material for them this actualluy is?). I shall only describe the process of The making of parchment: and I am convinced that an exchange of knowledge and experience between the maker and the user can be very useful indeed.

One thing before we begin. Around parchment there hangs a sort of mystical sphere, as if one shouldn't even be allowed to touch it. It is my intention to destroy this myth. Whenever following a demonstration somebody in the first row having seen and smelled the process says that he doesn't think much of it, I take this as a compliment. Actually it has to do with a dirty and rather lugubrious process. The parchmentmaker stands in a shambles. He works in the middle of fat and decay, maggots and excrement. It is about dead and killed animals, bled or not, about cadavers, intestines and abortions. In short, all about the activities of an animal breaking-up yard.

At the moment I'm am making parchment using the mediaeval recipes and tools from the period (comparable, that is). But many things are still unknown. For example to me it is a mystery how the mediaeval membranous thin parchment of the so-called Parish Bibles has been made. I know that it is not just parchment of a still-born calf, as it is much thinner. Also there is no definite answer to the question, although I did make some progress, how parchment was split before the third century A.D. But I did find out some other things. Like

• How to make transparent parchment
• How to make goldbeater’s skin
• What was the method of Edwards of Halifax (eigthteenth century) for making his famous partly transparent bookbindings?

Also I have learned to make parchment using methods dating from before the third century A.D., that is before lime was used in the parchment-making process. This is a very important contribution to our knowledge of the documents of this period, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Reconstruction of these methods could help in the restoration and conservation of these documents.