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| Le Parchemin | |
|---|---|
| Name | Le Parchemin |
| Type | Parchment manuscript |
| Material | Vellum, animal skin |
| Place | Medieval Europe |
| Date | c. 6th–16th century |
| Culture | Western Europe |
Le Parchemin is a term used to denote a class of parchment manuscripts historically produced across Byzantine Empire, Carolingian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of France, and Kingdom of England. It appears in scholarship on Codex Amiatinus, Book of Kells, Domesday Book, Magna Carta, and other medieval codices, and is central to studies involving Paleography, Codicology, Illuminated manuscript, Scriptorium and material studies.
The name derives from the medieval Latin term pergamenum associated with the city of Pergamon and is related to terminologies used in texts by Pliny the Elder, Isidore of Seville, Bede and later medieval lexica such as the Encyclopedia (Isidore). Scholarly treatments reference debates by historians like J. A. S. Evans, E. A. Lowe, and M. R. James alongside philologists working on Old French, Middle English, Medieval Latin, High German, and Occitan manuscript traditions.
Le Parchemin appears in archaeological surveys of sites linked to Lorsch Abbey, Sankt Gallen Abbey, Cluny Abbey, Monte Cassino, and royal archives of Capetian dynasty and Plantagenet administrations. Its production and circulation were influenced by patronage from figures such as Charlemagne, Alcuin of York, William the Conqueror, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and institutions including Vatican Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, British Library, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and princely collections of the Habsburg Monarchy. Political events like the Investiture Controversy, Fourth Crusade, Hundred Years' War, and the Reformation affected preservation, transmission, and relocation of parchment manuscripts among repositories such as Dumbarton Oaks, Sotheby's, Victoria and Albert Museum, and monastic treasuries.
Physical analyses compare Le Parchemin to exemplars such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Stockholm Codex Aureus, and the Gutenberg Bible, noting animal sources like calf, sheep, and goat used in practices recorded by craftsmen in Florence, Paris, Canterbury, Cologne, and Toledo. Techniques discussed in scientific studies by teams from Max Planck Society, British Museum, Smithsonian Institution, École Pratique des Hautes Études and laboratories at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Harvard University include microscopy, collagen analysis, and multispectral imaging applied to parchment, inks, pigments, and bindings similar to those in collections of Oxford Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Yale University Beinecke Library, and Princeton University Library.
Le Parchemin is central to rites, chronicles, liturgies, legal instruments, and devotional literature preserved in manuscripts like the Winchester Bible, Maurice Sermons, Pontifical of Cologne, Sacramentary of Gellone and documents tied to Papal States, Council of Nicaea II, Fourth Lateran Council, and monastic reforms led by Benedict of Nursia and Bernard of Clairvaux. It features in transmissions of texts by Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Hildegard of Bingen and is implicated in disputes over relics, exemplified by episodes involving Relics of Saint Cuthbert, Shroud of Turin, and liturgical artifacts curated by St. Peter's Basilica.
Medieval workshops in Chartres, Reims, Durham Cathedral, Montepellier?, Siena, Ghent, and Antwerp employed scraping, liming, stretching on frames, and ruling with ink and stylus akin to processes described in treatises by Theophilus Presbyter, Roger of Helmarshausen, and later codicologists such as E. K. Rand and C. R. Morey. Conservation protocols now used by ICCROM, ICOMOS, Conservation Department (British Library), and university conservators at Kunsthistorisches Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art include humidity control, deacidification alternatives, digitization projects at Europeana, Gallica, and Digital Bodleian and preventive storage mirroring standards from ISO committees and cultural heritage programs of the Council of Europe.
Collections housing paradigmatic items include the British Library's holdings like the Lacnunga and Beowulf manuscript, the Bibliothèque nationale de France's Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, the Vatican Library's classical and biblical codices, the Bodleian Library's medieval corpus, and university libraries such as Trinity College Dublin, University of Leiden, University of Bologna, Sorbonne, Columbia University and museums like the Rijksmuseum. Auction records at Christie's and scholarly catalogues list illuminated missals, legal rolls, palimpsests from Saint Catherine's Monastery, and diplomatic collections tied to figures like Philip IV of France and Edward I of England.
Le Parchemin and its analogues appear in fiction and film referencing the Illuminated manuscript tradition in works by Umberto Eco, Dan Brown, J. R. R. Tolkien, Hilary Mantel, and in documentaries produced by BBC and PBS; motifs recur in video games set in medieval settings created by studios like CD Projekt RED and Ubisoft. Literary treatments evoke manuscripts alongside artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone, Ark of the Covenant (fictional), and narrative devices used in The Name of the Rose, The Da Vinci Code, The Lord of the Rings, and cinematic depictions staged at locations including Alcázar of Segovia, Mont Saint-Michel, Chartres Cathedral and collections shown at exhibitions in Louvre and Museo del Prado.
Category:Manuscripts