MEDI 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Latin Psalters, Wyken, Scriptorium
11 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
As the name implies, manuscripts were made by hand, usually in specialized monastic workshops termed scriptoria. The process of creating a manuscript was lengthy, laborious, expensive and required many specialized skills. Though parchment and vellum are often used interchangeably, vellum references calf-skin whereas parchment refers to any other animal hide processed as a writing surface. An animal pelt was soaked in a lime bath, dried while being stretched on a frame, and then cleaned and scraped. It is the process of simultaneously stretching and drying the pelt that distinguishes parchment/vellum from leather. Parchment/vellum was pumiced and chalked to a milky-white smoothness. Its value is reflected in its frequent reuse. Parchment/vellum manuscript folia that have been reused are called palimpsests. If the contents of a parchment/vellum manuscript were no longer of value, the scribe would scrape or wash the ink of the skin and copy another text in its place.
