the skins of sheep or goats prepared after such a manner as to render them proper for being written upon, or used in covering books.

The word comes from the Latin pergamena, the ancient name of this manufacture, which is said to have been taken from the city of Pergamus, to Eumenes, the king of which, its invention is usually ascribed; although, in reality, that prince appears rather to have been the improver than the inventor of parchment. According to Diodorus, the Persians of old wrote all their records on skins; and the ancient Ionians, as we learn from Herodotus, made use of sheep and goat skins in writing, many ages before the time of Eumenes. Nor need we doubt that such skins were dressed for the purpose, after a manner not unlike that in which our parchment is prepared, though probably not so artificially.

The manufacture of parchment is begun by the skinner, and finished by the parchment-maker. The skin having been stripped of its wool, and placed in the lime-pit, the skinner stretches it on a kind of frame, and pares off the flesh with an iron instrument. This being done, it is moistened with a rag; and powdered chalk being spread over it, the skinner takes a large pumice-stone, flat at the bottom, rubs over the skin, and thus scours off the flesh: he then goes over it again with an iron instrument, moistens it as before, and rubs it again with the pumice-stone without any chalk underneath, by which means the flesh side is very considerably smoothed and softened. He then drains it again, by passing over it the iron instrument as before. The flesh side being thus drained, by scraping off the moisture, he in the same manner passes the iron over the woolly or hairy side, and then stretches it on a frame, and scrapes the flesh side again. This finishes its draining; and the more it is drained the whiter it becomes. The skinner now throws on more chalk, sweeping it over with a piece of lamb-skin which has the wool on; and this smooths it still farther. It is then left to dry, and when dried, taken off the frame by cutting it all round. The skin, being thus far prepared by the skinner, is taken out of his hands by the parchment-maker, who first, whilst it is dry, pares it on a summer, or calf-skin stretched in a frame, with a sharper instrument than that used by the skinner; and, working with the arm from the top to the bottom of the skin, takes away about one half of its thickness. The skin, being thus equally pared on the flesh side, is again rendered smooth by being rubbed with the pumice-stone on a bench covered with a sack stuffed with flocks, which leaves the parchment in a condition fit for writing upon. The parings thus taken off the leather are used in making glue, size, and the like.

What is called cellum is only parchment made of the skins of abortives, or at least sucking calves. This has a much finer grain, and is whiter and smoother than parchment; but it is prepared in the same manner, except that it is not passed through the lime-pit.