Not only are they made from different kinds of skin, but the
vellum used for illuminated books was, and still is, prepared with
greater care than the parchment used for ordinary school or college
treatises, or legal documents.
The fabrication of both parchment and vellum in the Middle Ages was
quite as important a matter as that of paper at the present time, and
certain monastic establishments had a special reputation for the
excellence of their manufacture. Thus the "parcheminerie," as it was
called, of the Abbey of Cluny, in France, was quite celebrated in the
twelfth century. One reason probably for this celebrity was the fact
that Cluny had more than three hundred churches, colleges, and
monasteries amongst its dependencies, and therefore had ample
opportunities for obtaining the best materials and learning the best
methods in use throughout literary Christendom. As to the name "vellum,"
it is directly referable to the familiar Latin term for the hide or pelt
of the sheep or other animal, but specially applied, as we have said, to
that of the calf, the writing material thus prepared being termed
_charta vitulina_--in French _v?lin_, and in monastic Latin and English
_vellum_.
The name "parchment" had quite a different kind of origin.
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