Vellum (from the Old French Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century. It is a direct descendent of Old Gallo-Romance. It was then known as the langue d'oïl to distinguish it from the langue d'oc (Occitan language, Vélin, for "calfskin")[1] is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used. The manufacture involves the cleaning, bleaching, stretching on a frame, and scraping of the skin with a hemispherical knife. To create tension, scraping is alternated by wetting and drying. A final finish may be achieved by abrading the surface with pumice, and treating with a preparation of lime or chalk to make it accept writing or printing ink.[2] Modern "paper vellum" (vegetable vellum[3]) is used for a variety of purposes, especially for plans, technical drawings, and blueprints A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan.
Contents |
Material and manufacture
There is some confusion about the relationship between the words vellum and parchment Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. Its most common use was as a material for writing on, for documents, notes, or the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned, therefore it is very reactive with changes in relative humidity and is. In Europe, from Roman times, the term vellum was used for the best quality of prepared skin, regardless of the animal from which the hide was obtained, calf Calfskin is a leather or membrane produced from the hide of a calf. Calfskin is particularly valuable because of its softness, and fine grain. It is commonly used for high-quality shoes, wallets and similar products, as well as traditional leather bookbindings, sheep Sheepskin is the hide of a sheep, sometimes also called lambskin. Unlike common leather, sheepskin is tanned with the fleece intact, as in a pelt, and goat all being commonly used (other animals, including pig, deer, donkey, horse, or camel have been used). Although the term derives from the French for "calf", except for Muslim or Jewish use, animal vellum can include hide from virtually any other mammal. The best quality, "uterine vellum", was said to be made from the skins of stillborn or unborn animals, although the term was also applied to fine quality skins made from young animals.
Vellum is a translucent In the field of optics, transparency is the physical property of allowing light to pass through a material; translucency (also called translucence or translucidity) only allows light to pass through diffusely. The opposite property is opacity. Transparent materials are clear, while translucent ones cannot be seen through clearly material produced from the skin, often split, of a young animal that has been soaked, limed Calcium hydroxide, traditionally called slaked lime, hydrated lime, slack lime, or pickling lime, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Ca2. It is a colourless crystal or white powder, and is obtained when calcium oxide (called lime or quicklime) is mixed, or "slaked" with water. It can also be precipitated by mixing an, and scudded (a depilatory process), and then dried at normal temperature under tension In physics, tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string, cable, chain, or similar object on another object. It is the opposite of compression. As tension is the magnitude of a force, it is measured in newtons and is always measured parallel to the string on which it applies. There are two basic possibilities for systems of, usually on a wooden device called a stretching frame Picture frames have traditionally been made of wood, which is still the most common and most prestigious material, although other materials are also used, including aluminum, plastics or polystyrene, even sea shells. A picture frame may be of any colour or texture, but gilding is common, especially on older frames. Some picture frames have. The distinction between vellum and parchment has been made in several different ways, and no one definition can be considered correct, but vellum has always denoted the better quality. French sources, closer to the original etymology, tend to define velin as from calf only, while the British Standards Institution BSI Group, also known in its home market as the British Standards Institution , is a multinational business services provider whose principal activity is the production of standards and the supply of standards-related services defines parchment as made from the split skin of several species, and vellum from the unsplit skin.[4] The important distinction between vellum (or parchment) and leather Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry is that the former is not processed using tanning Tanning is the process of making leather, which does not easily decompose, from the skins of animals, which do. Often this uses tannin, an acidic chemical compound. Coloring may occur during tanning. A tannery is the term for a place where these skins are processed.[citation needed]
Manuscripts
The earliest painted Self-Portrait (1493) by Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since. His well-known works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, Knight, Death, and the; originally executed in oil on vellum, now transferred to linen. Louvre The Musée du Louvre , or officially Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre — is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, France and is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000, Paris Paris ([paʁi] in French, pronounced /ˈpærɪs/ in English) is the capital and largest city of France. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (or Paris Region, French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its administrative limits largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimatedMost of the finer sort of medieval The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in manuscripts, whether illuminated An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations. In the strictest definition of the term, an illuminated manuscript only refers to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver, but in both common usage and modern scholarship, the or not, were written on vellum. Some Gandharan Buddhist texts were written on vellum, and all Sifrei Torah The term Torah , also known as the Pentateuch (Greek: penta [five] and teuchos [tool, vessel, book]), refers to the Five Books of Moses—the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts. A "Sefer Torah" (סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה, "book of Torah") or Torah scroll is a copy of the Torah written on parchment (Hebrew: ספר תורה ; plural: ספרי תורה, Sifrei Torah) are written on kosher Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér (כָּשֵׁר), meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption by Jews according to traditional Jewish law). Food that is not in accordance with Jewish law is klaf or vellum.
A quarter of the 180 copy edition of Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and printer who introduced modern book printing. His invention of mechanical movable type printing started the Printing Revolution and is widely regarded the most important event of the modern period. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation and the's first Bible The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed with a movable type printing press, marking the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book. Widely hailed for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has iconic status in the West. It is an edition of the Vulgate, printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in printed in 1455 with movable type Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document . The first known movable type system for printing was created in China around 1040 AD by Bi Sheng (990–1051), but the metal movable type system for printing was developed in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty (around 1230) was also printed on vellum, presumably because his market expected this for a high-quality book. Paper, however, was always used for most book-printing with rare exceptions, as it was cheaper and easier to process through a printing-press and bind BIND , for Berkeley Internet Name Daemon, or name d (/ˈneɪmdiː/), is as of 2010[update] the most commonly used Domain Name System (DNS) server on the Internet. On Unix-like systems it is the de facto standard.
In art, vellum was used 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 An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are others. With rare exceptions, old master prints are 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 Categories: Arts and crafts | Fashion design | Sewing | . 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 1,000 years—Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care (Troyes, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 504), 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 are written on animal vellum, such as diplomas. Referring to a diploma as a "sheepskin" alludes to the time when diplomas were written on vellum made from animal hides.
An example of a document written on vellum is the Faddan More Psalter, discovered in July 2006 in a bog A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland type that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—usually mosses, but also lichens in Arctic climates in Ireland, which was written over 1,000 years ago.[5]
Modern use
British Acts of Parliament An act of Parliament is a statute (commonly called a law) enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament are still printed on vellum for archival purposes,[6] as are those of the Republic of Ireland Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɪərlənd/ , locally [ˈaɾlənd], Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)), described as the Republic of Ireland (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann), is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned into two jurisdictions in 1921.[7] True vellum is still used for Jewish scrolls, of the Torah The term Torah , also known as the Pentateuch (Greek: penta [five] and teuchos [tool, vessel, book]), refers to the Five Books of Moses—the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts. A "Sefer Torah" (סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה, "book of Torah") or Torah scroll is a copy of the Torah written on parchment in particular, for luxury book-binding, memorial books, and for various documents in calligraphy Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering (Mediavilla 1996: 17). A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner" (Mediavilla 1996: 18). The story of writing is one of aesthetic evolution framed within the.
Today, because of 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. Some brands of writing-paper and other sorts of paper use the term "vellum" merely to suggest quality, when it is not actually vellum.
Vellum is still used on instruments such as the banjo, although synthetic skins are also available for these instruments.
Paper vellum
Modern imitation or "paper vellum" is made from plasticized cotton. Usually translucent, paper vellum in various sizes There have been many standard sizes of paper at different times and in different countries, but today there are two widespread systems in use: the international standard and the North American sizes is often used in applications where tracing is required, such as architectural plans An architectural plan is a plan for architecture, and the documentation of written and graphic descriptions of the architectural elements of a building project including sketches, drawings and details. Like natural vellum,[citation needed] the synthetic is more dimensionally stable than a linen or paper sheet, which is frequently critical in the development of large scaled drawings and plans such as blueprints A blueprint is a type of paper-based reproduction usually of a technical drawing, documenting an architecture or an engineering design. More generally, the term "blueprint" has come to be used to refer to any detailed plan. It was also extremely important in that reproduction technology for dissemination of the plans as, like a high quality natural vellum, it could be produced in a thin enough sheet to be virtually transparent to strong light enabling a source drawing to be used directly in the reproduction of field-used drawings.
Preservation
True Vellum is typically stored in a stable environment with constant temperature and 30% (± 5%) relative humidity The relative humidity of an air-water mixture is defined as the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor (ew) in the mixture to the saturated vapor pressure of water at a prescribed temperature. If vellum is stored in an environment with less than 11% relative humidity, it becomes fragile, brittle, and susceptible to mechanical stresses; if it is stored in an environment with greater than 40% relative humidity, it becomes vulnerable to gelation and to mold or fungus growth.[8] The optimal temperature for the preservation of vellum is 20°C ± 1.5 (67°F ± 3).
References
- ^ Online Etymological Dictionary
- ^ http://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/paper-vellum.html
- ^ http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-vellum.htm
- ^ Young, Laura, A., Bookbinding & conservation by hand: a working guide, Oak Knoll Press, 1995, ISBN 1884718116, 9781884718113, Google books
- ^ Location of 'Ireland's Dead Sea Scrolls' revealed- IOL news 05/08/2006 - 09:50:08
- ^ BBC report on Parliament's continued use of vellum
- ^ Frequently Asked Questions about the Houses of the Oireachtas - Tithe an Oireachtais
- ^ Eric F. Hansen and Steve N. Lee, “The Effects of Relative Humidity on Some Physical Properties of Modern Vellum: Implications for the Optimum Relative Humidity for the Display and Storage of Parchment,” The Book and Paper Group Annual (1991).
External links
- Vellum Paper Information
- On-line demonstration of the preparation of vellum from the BNF, Paris. Text in French, but mostly visual.
- Contains advice on cleaning of vellum
Categories: Hides | Book design Categories: Book publishing | Books | Book arts | Calligraphy | Writing media
Peninsula On-line
A book in vellum (parchment made from animal skin) of dimensions 143X93mm would not get a second glance unless one knows its value. ...
1ads
Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:40:00 GM
Small gift enclosure cards measure 2-1/2" x 3-1/4"; . Vellum. envelopes allow the beauty of these gift cards to show through; Cards repeat the front image on the inside; Perfect to keep on hand for birthdays or other gift giving occasions ...
Q. What is the best adhesive for using vellum in cardmaking and scrapbooking?
Asked by reva - Thu Dec 18 08:54:39 2008 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Scotch brand makes a vellum tape. I have found that any adhesive shows through on vellum. I try to use it under an embellishment so it doesn't show. Or I use brads to hold down the vellum.
Answered by drip - Thu Dec 18 14:15:56 2008
