title: Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting.
abstract: Tissue-thin parchment made it possible to produce the first pocket Bibles: Thousands were made in the 13th century. The source of this parchment, often called "uterine vellum," has been a long-standing controversy in codicology. Use of the Latin term abortivum in many sources has led some scholars to suggest that the skin of fetal calves or sheep was used. Others have argued that it would not be possible to sustain herds if so many pocket Bibles were produced from fetal skins, arguing instead for unexpected alternatives, such as rabbit. Here, we report a simple and objective technique using standard conservation treatments to identify the animal origin of parchment. The noninvasive method is a variant on zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) peptide mass fingerprinting but extracts protein from the parchment surface by using an electrostatic charge generated by gentle rubbing of a PVC eraser on the membrane surface. Using this method, we analyzed 72 pocket Bibles originating in France, England, and Italy and 293 additional parchment samples that bracket this period. We found no evidence for the use of unexpected animals; however, we did identify the use of more than one mammal species in a single manuscript, consistent with the local availability of hides. These results suggest that ultrafine vellum does not necessarily derive from the use of abortive or newborn animals with ultrathin hides, but could equally well reflect a production process that allowed the skins of maturing animals of several species to be rendered into vellum of equal quality and fineness.
authors.affiliation: BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom; sarah.fiddyment@york.ac.uk matthew.collins@york.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fiddyment
authors.affiliation: Department of English, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121;
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Holsinger
authors.affiliation: Institut de recherche Religions, spiritualités, cultures, sociétés, Université catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruzzier
authors.affiliation: Department of English/Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19014;
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Devine
authors.affiliation: UMR 7041 Archéologie et Sciences de l'Antiquité (ArScAn), Archéologies environnementales, Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, F-92023 Nanterre Cedex, France;
authors.forename: Annelise
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Binois
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4ET, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Albarella
authors.affiliation: Target Discovery Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7FZ, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservation, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge CB3 9DR, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nichols
authors.affiliation: Collection Care, Norfolk Record Office, Norwich NR1 2DQ, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Antoinette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.affiliation: Department of Manuscripts and Printed Books, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge CB2 1RB, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cheese
authors.affiliation: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland;
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Teasdale
authors.affiliation: Collection Care, The University of Manchester Library, The John Rylands Library, Manchester M3 3EH, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Checkley-Scott
authors.affiliation: Department of Italian, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Milner
authors.affiliation: School of Art History, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Kathryn M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Rudy
authors.affiliation: Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210;
authors.forename: Eric J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Department of Preservation, The Royal Library, DK-1016 København K, Denmark;
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vnouček
authors.affiliation: Department of History, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garrison
authors.affiliation: BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McGrory
authors.affiliation: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland;
authors.forename: Daniel G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.affiliation: BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom; sarah.fiddyment@york.ac.uk matthew.collins@york.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Collins
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D049691:History, Medieval; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D010449:Peptide Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D012867:Skin / Q000737:chemistry*
keywords: collagen; mass spectrometry; parchment; pocket Bible; vellum