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What are Vellum and Vellum Paper ?

Webster describes vellum as a fine-grained un-split lambskin, kidskin, or calfskin prepared especially for writing on or for binding books or a strong cream-colored paper.

Vellum and parchment are materials prepared from the skins of animals. Strictly speaking, vellum is a finer quality of parchment prepared from calf skins, but the terms have been used interchangeably since the Middle Ages.

Vellum was originally a translucent or opaque material produced from un-split calfskin, and consequently had a grain pattern on one side (unless removed by scraping). Parchment was produced from the flesh split of a sheep or goat or other kind of skin, and consequently had no grain pattern. The important distinction between vellum (and parchment) and leather is that the former is not tanned but is prepared essentially by soaking the skin in lime and drying it under tension.

Historical Records using Vellum as a Writing Material

Ancient cultures used leather as a writing material before parchment. Egyptian sources refer to documents written on leather as early as 2450 BC. Most medieval manuscripts, whether illuminated or not, were written on vellum. The very best quality, Uterine vellum, was made from the skins of still-born or even unborn animals.

Buddhist texts were written on vellum. A quarter of the 180 copy edition of Johannes Gutenberg's first Bible printed in 1455 with movable type was also printed on vellum, presumably because his market expected this for a high-quality book.

Paper soon took over for most book-printing, as it was cheaper and easier to handle through a printing-press

Arts and Paintings on Vellum

In art, vellum was used widely for paintings, especially if they needed to be sent long distances, before canvas became widely used in about 1500, and continued to be used for drawings, and watercolors. Old master prints were sometimes printed on vellum, especially for presentation copies, until at least the seventeenth century.

Binding Print Document with Limp Vellum

Limp vellum or limp-parchment bindings were used frequently in the 16th and 17th centuries, and were sometimes gilt but were also often not embellished. In later centuries vellum has been more commonly used like leather, that is, as the covering for stiff board bindings. Vellum can be stained virtually any color but seldom is, as a great part of its beauty and appeal rests in its faint grain and hair markings, as well as its warmth and simplicity.