The animal origin of thirteenth-century uterine vellum revealed using non-invasive peptide fingerprinting
Sarah Fiddyment, 2015. https://doi.org/10.5284/1035166. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Sarah Fiddyment unless otherwise stated
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- ADS Collection: 2163
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1035166
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
Tissue-thin parchment made it possible to produce the first pocket Bibles: thousands were made in the thirteenth century. The source of this parchment, often called 'uterine vellum’, has been a longstanding controversy in codicology. Use of the Latin term abortivum in many sources has led some scholars to suggest that the skin of fetal calves or sheep was used. Others have argued that it would not be possible to sustain herds if so many pocket Bibles were produced from fetal skins, arguing instead for unexpected alternatives such as rabbit. We report a simple and objective technique using standard conservation treatments to identify the animal origin of parchment. The non-invasive method is a variant on ZooMS peptide mass fingerprinting but extracts protein from the parchment surface by using electrostatic charge generated by gentle rubbing of a PVC eraser on the membrane surface.
We found no evidence for the use of unexpected animals; however, we did identify the use of more than one mammal species in a single manuscript, consistent with the local availability of hides. These results suggest that ultrafine vellum does not necessarily derive from the use of abortive or newborn animals with ultrathin hides, but could equally well reflect a production process that allowed the skins of maturing animals of several species to be rendered into vellum of equal quality and fineness.
