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36 The parchment of the Vienna Genesis: characteristics and manufacture
Characteristics of Late Antique parchment
The parchment of Late Antique manuscripts, which date from the 4th –7th century, is made
from sheepskin2. It is typically very smooth and thin and has an even surface on both the
flesh and hair sides. The production of parchment during this period was distinctively
different from the processes used during the Middle Ages. There are no known accounts
that specifically describe the methods of manufacture of parchment in the Greco-Roman
world. However, hidden within descriptions of historical events and even in some poetical
texts, one can find indirect information about the qualities of parchment made during
that time and the types of animals from which skins were prepared. The earliest account
of the invention of parchment, which is widely repeated in modern texts, is that of Varro
(116–27 B. C.) and is noted in Pliny the Elder’s (23–79 A. D.) Historia Naturalis, (book
VII, chapter 21)3, where the production of parchment in Greek Pergamum (now Bergama
in modern-day Turkey) is mentioned:
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 discovered at Pergamum; and afterwards the employment of the material on which the
immortality of human beings depends spread indiscriminately.4
It is not clear which kings Varro or Pliny are referring to in this passage. Johnson, like most
scholars, identifies them as Eumenes II (197–159 B. C.) and Ptolemy VI Philometor (180–145
B. C.). Johnson recognized that the primary reason for the shortage of papyrus was the
threat of war between Egypt and the Seleucid kingdom in the years 173–169, which must
have led to a reduction in trade5. There is consensus among scholars that leather or slightly
tanned parchment were used for several centuries before this date. The method of manufac-
ture of parchment as material for writing was not invented in Pergamum, but it is possible
that the techniques were fully mastered there and the process of its manufacture standard-
2 In manuscript catalogues and other scholarly publications, parchment from the Late Antique pe-
riod is often called vellum. The term is misleading, because this type of parchment is prepared from
sheepskin and not from calfskin, from which the word vellum is derived.
3 The production of parchment is only mentioned towards the end of chapter 21, which is focused
on the history of papyrus. A description of the manufacture of papyrus and the different types and
qualities of “paper” that can be obtained from it, is found in chapters 22 to 26 of book XIII.
4 Plin. HN 13.70. The translation is that of H. Rackham, 1938–1963, IV, p. 141, except for two words
that were changed by R. G. Johnson (see below): “papyrus” to “paper” and “discovered” to “inven-
ted”.
5 Johnson 1970, p. 120.
Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0
The Vienna Genesis
Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment
- Title
- The Vienna Genesis
- Subtitle
- Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment
- Editor
- Christa Hofmann
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-21058-0
- Size
- 17.3 x 24.5 cm
- Pages
- 348