page_title: Vellum
section_title: Manufacture
hierarchical_section_title: Vellum / Manufacture
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Manuscript op perkament. Een portulaan van Jacobus Russus uit Messina. Zie [1] English: Manuscript on vellum. A portolan chart by Jacobo Russo (Giacomo Russo) of Messina.
context_page_description: Vellum is prepared animal skin or "membrane", typically used as a material for writing on. Parchment is another term for this material, and if vellum is distinguished from this, it is by vellum being made from calfskin, as opposed to that from other animals, or otherwise being of higher quality. Vellum is prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. The word is derived from the Latin word vitulinum meaning "made from calf", leading to Old French vélin, "calfskin".
  Modern scholars and custodians increasingly use only the less specific if confusing term "membrane". Depending on factors such as the method of preparation it may be very hard to determine the animal species involved without using a laboratory, and the term avoids the need to distinguish between vellum and parchment.
  Vellum is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation and the quality of the skin. The manufacture involves the cleaning, bleaching, stretching on a frame, and scraping of the skin with a crescent-shaped knife. To create tension, scraping is alternated with wetting and drying.
context_section_description: Vellum is a translucent material produced from the skin, often split, of a young animal. The skin is washed with water and lime (Calcium hydroxide), but not together. It is then soaked in lime for several days to soften and remove the hair. 
  Once clear, the two sides of the skin are distinct: the side facing inside the animal and the hair side. The "inside body side" of the skin is usually the lighter and more refined of the two. The hair follicles may be visible on the outer side, together with any scarring made while the animal was alive. The membrane can also show the pattern of the animal's vein network called the "veining" of the sheet.
  Any remaining hair is removed ("scudding") and the skin is dried by attaching it to a frame (a "herse"). The skin is attached at points around the circumference with cords; to prevent tearing, the maker wraps the area of the skin to which the cord is to be attached around a pebble (a "pippin"). The maker then uses a crescent shaped knife, (a "lunarium" or "lunellum"), to clean off any remaining hairs.
  Once the skin is completely dry, it is thoroughly cleaned and processed into sheets. The number of sheets extracted from the piece of skin depends on the size of the skin and the given dimensions requested by the order. For example, the average calfskin could provide roughly three and a half medium sheets of writing material. This can be doubled when it is folded into two conjoint leaves, also known as a bifolium. Historians have found evidence of manuscripts where the scribe wrote down the medieval instructions now followed by modern membrane makers. The membrane is then rubbed with a round, flat object ("pouncing") to ensure that the ink would adhere to the surface.
caption: A portolan chart (map) by Jacobo Russo (Giacomo Russo) of Messina (1533)
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