Making Manuscripts

(soft guitar music) - In the Middle Ages, parchment was used to make the pages of books. Parchment was made from animal skins. The transition from fresh skin to a writable surface was a slow and laborious process. The parchment selected sheep, goat or calf skins. The hides were soaked in lime water for three to ten days to loosen the animals' hair. The parchment then scraped off the hair and any remaining flesh. After this, the skin was soaked in fresh water, to remove the lime, and then stretched tightly over a frame. A special rounded knife was used to scrape the skin to the desired thickness.

The scraping process continued for several days. During this time, the parchment continually increased the tension on the stretching frame, while the skin dried. The result was parchment, a soft and durable material that could last more than a thousand years. Before the parchment could be written on, it had to be specially prepared. First, the parchment was rubbed with pumice powder to roughen the surface and then sprinkled with a sticky powder. These steps made the surface receptive to inks and colors. The entire finished skin was then cut to the size of the pages needed for a particular book.

A large manuscript was compiled from sheets almost the size of a single skin. For smaller books, the skin was cut into two or more pieces. Sheets of parchment were folded and nested to form groupings, usually sixteen or twenty pages long. The vibrant illuminations of a medieval manuscript often eclipse the words on the page. However, writing the script was as important as painting the pictures. The tools of a scribe, the person who copied text onto the page, were simple. The feathers, called quills, were made from bird feathers, which were soaked in water, dried, and hardened with hot sand.

The scribe carved the quill to a rough tip, cut a slit to extract the ink, and then trimmed the tip to the proper width. The shape of the tip of the pen varied depending on the style of the letters being copied. Scribes made ink from a variety of materials. Galls, growths found on oak trees, were often used to create a dark black ink. Black ink was also made by dissolving a common carbon substance. The resulting ink was called smoke black. Before beginning to write, the scribe ruled the parchment with a ruler. Medieval scribes and their patrons valued regular, elegant writing.

If a scribe made a mistake, he crossed it out with a razor. Since the page was made of parchment, which was very strong, it could withstand many such erasures. An illuminator decorated the pages of a manuscript with paint and precious metals. It began only after a scribe had finished copying the text. The illuminator first sketched his design and then added details such as the features of a figure or the interlacing of a decorated initial. Thin sheets of precious metals, such as gold leaf, were always applied first. The illuminator applied a base coat, consisting of a plaster-like substance called gesso or gum, as shown here.

Once the rubber base dried, the moisture in the highlighter's breath was enough to make the small piece of gold leaf stick to the page. Then the highlighter removed the excess and polished the gold leaf. After applying the gold leaf, the illuminator painted the design on it. Each color was made from a vegetable dye or a mineral substance, ground and dissolved in liquid. The highlighter applied the palest tones first and then the darkest ones. Once the illuminator applied black outlines and delicate white highlights to the figures and vines, the lighting was finished. Once the scribes and illuminators finished writing and decorating the parchment pages, the manuscript was bound.

Clusters of folded parchment sheets, called gathers, were sewn with strong linen thread onto flexible supports, such as these narrow strips of leather. The binder then attached end bands, which secured the top and bottom ends of the pages to the spine of the book. The bookbinder then attached the leather strips along the spine through channels and tunnels, which had been carved into wooden boards. These boards were the covers of the manuscript. The straps could be fastened with wooden pegs or iron nails. The volume was then covered, usually with leather. Without the pressure of the covers to keep the sheets flat, the parchment expanded and contracted with changes in temperature and humidity.

Pressure was applied by adding clasps or straps that kept the book closed. The binding of a manuscript could be decorated with any of a variety of materials. A manuscript could be covered in leather, stamped or worked with gold, or covered with silks or velvets. The most elaborate bindings received sculpted decoration made of precious metals. Binding materials depended on the wealth of the patron, the type of manuscript, and the intended use. (soft guitar music)