Paper, as a writing support in the 13th century, was usually produced by soaking fabric, such as cotton or linen, and then beating the wet fabric to a pulp. After dipping a wired frame into the pulpy mixture it was then "agitated until the fibers fused to form a sheet of paper" (Brown, 1994, p. 94). Early paper is noted by its resilience to withstand ageing; paper made in the 19th century and on was created using more acidic materials which caused it to turn brown and disintegrate over time (Brown, 1994, p.94). Paper makes up the first portion of this manuscript; the quires' very white color and near perfect condition is evidence the paper was created before the 19th century.
Parchment, or animal skin, is another writing support used in preparing manuscripts as early as the 4th century. To create parchment, animal hides were first soaked in lime, stretched onto a frame and then scraped until no hair remained (Brown, 1994, p.95). After the animal skins had fully dried, they were often times treated to appear whiter or smoother and then the prepared hides were cut down to an appropriate size (Brown, 1994, p. 95).
While paper makes up the first portion of this manuscript, there is one additional quire made from parchment (see Figure 4).
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| Figure 4 |
The parchment is a beautiful golden yellow color, typical of vellum, rather than the brighter white paper used in the rest of the manuscript. And, although more than 800 years old, “speckled traces of hair follicles” (Brown, 1994, p.65) are still quite visible on one side of the parchment leaves, indicative of the side that once held the animal’s hair (see Figure 5).
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| Figure 5. Speckled traces of hair follicles near edge. |
These hair sides of the leaves tend to be "darker and smoother" (Brown, 1994, p. 65) than the flesh sides, which tend to be "whiter and softer" (Brown, 1994, p. 56). Most of the time, manuscript preparers employed Gregory's Law, or the design of folios "so that when the book was opened the two pages facing each other matched - grain opposite grain, flesh opposite flesh" (Avrin, 1991, p.213). Such is the case with this manuscript.
Why there are, in fact, two separate parts to this manuscript, one done in paper and one done in parchment, can only be speculated. However, what is certain is the unique beauty each of these writing support materials offers.
Postscript: Per Kidd (2013), the portion of manuscript first thought to be made from an early type of paper may, infact, be parchment. Kidd notes that while varying in color and quality from the other portion of the manuscript, it may, in fact, be another type of parchment. For instance one portion may have been done in calfskin while the other done in sheepskin (2013) which can vary greatly from one another in all respects.
