Parchment
Pergamino (piel curtida en cal y raspada)
- Date
- c. 190 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Pergamon, Turkey
- Credited to
- Kingdom of Pergamon (Eumenes II), according to Pliny and Varro
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Sheep, goat or calf skin soaked in lime, scraped, stretched and polished to obtain a writing surface usable on both sides, durable and reusable. It freed the West from dependence on Egyptian papyrus.
Written leather already existed in Egypt and Persia; the legend of Ptolemy V's papyrus embargo explains its development at Pergamon but is doubtful.
What it led to
- The bound codex, since it can be folded and written on both sides
- Durable libraries and the medieval transmission of classical texts
- Illuminated manuscripts, palimpsests and long-lived legal documents
- A monastic monopoly on book production
Built on
- Burnt lime and gypsum plasterc. 8000 BCE
- Papyrusc. 3000 BCE
- Leather tanning
Made possible
- Bound codexc. 100 CE
- Iron gall inkc. century IV
- Chrome tanning1884
- Palimpsest
- Illuminated manuscript