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Post by UKarchaeology on Nov 24, 2015 1:52:39 GMT
 A lot of mystery meat went into illuminated manuscripts. (London, British Library, MS Burney 97, f. 18r.)The beautiful medieval illustrated manuscripts of Europe were carefully inked on parchment; animal hides crafted into something resembling modern paper. Called "uterine vellum,” records hinted it might be made from the hides of calves, sheep, or maybe squirrels and rabbits. And did it really come from a uterus? (Ew.)In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists finally found an easy way to answer your burning questions about uterine vellum. And in the process, they learned a few things about the history of animal husbandry, too. Figuring out just what this vellum is made of poses a major problem. In order to examine DNA in ancient vellum, researchers have to permanently destroy part of a unique, historic document — or else rely on size, hide thickness, levels of grease, and follicle patterns (ew) to come up with an educated guess for the parchment's origin. Genetic analysis of Marco Polo’s pocket Bible in 2012 determined it was calfskin, for example, as opposed to fetal lambskin. However, a 5 mg sample of the book presented to Kublai Khan in 1275 was destroyed to make that discovery. Most archivists would faint at the prospect of cutting pieces off precious 700-year-old books to be ground up for analysis. Researchers needed a way to non-destructively gather proteins from historic vellum. Sarah Fiddyment, a biochemist working in the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, explained, “We had to work with archivists to try and develop a technique that was noninvasive but that could still give us results.” Fiddyment turned to erasers. Yes, erasers. Polyvinyl Erasers are commonly used by conservationists to clean dirt and stains from parchments. The gentle rubbing creates a triboelectric effect (science translation: a small electric charge) that soils are attracted to. Fiddyment wondered: could some molecules from the manuscript itself be drawn onto the eraser scraps? And could the eraser residue be swept up and analyzed for proteins? Full story: www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/11/23/new-technique-unlocks-the-mystery-meats-used-to-make-uterine-vellum-for-ancient-books/ |
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Post by UKarchaeology on Nov 24, 2015 2:02:36 GMT
Another article on the matter; Secrets of medieval Europe's large-scale publishing industry revealedContinent’s craftsmen discovered a way of transforming animal skins into wafer-thin sheets for use in era's finest books  Medieval artisans immersed skins in alkali-rich liquefied lime to make goat, sheep and eight week old calf parchment look as fine as if it had all come from new-born calves (David Keys)The mystery of how the medieval world made some of its finest books has at last been solved – after 700 years. New research is revealing the trade secrets of Europe’s very first large-scale commercial publishing industry. Several generations before the widespread introduction of paper into Christian Europe, the continent’s craftsmen discovered a way of transforming animal skins into wafer-thin sheets for use as pages in medieval books. They succeeded in making animal skin ‘paper’ that was just 1/15th (and sometimes even 1/18th) of a millimetre thick – and armed with this new technology, they were able to mass produce the world’s first lightweight books – an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 handwritten bibles. The craftsmen kept the tricks of their trade strictly under wraps – and, for the past 700 years, most historians and others have believed that 13th century ultra-fine parchment makers must have used the skins of rabbits, squirrels and new born, still born and even aborted calves to make their super-thin products. But now, 700 years after deteriorating economic conditions forced Europe’s craftsmen to stop producing super-thin parchment, scientists have discovered that they hardly ever used such young calves, let alone rabbits and squirrels, but instead developed a method of making skin from adult sheep, adult goats and young eight week old cattle look like the skins of new-born calves. In a series of tests carried out by British scientists on 72 lightweight parchment bibles, made in various areas of medieval Europe, the scientists have discovered that 68% were made of calf skin (many from France and probably some from England), around 6% from adult sheep (mainly from England) and 26% from adult goats (mainly from Italy and southern France). Full story: www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/medieval-europes-first-large-scale-publishing-industry-revealed-a6745981.html |
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