The parchment maker

At a glance

• Place: Levroux, Indre
• Skins: lamb, kid, goat; stillborn calf for vellum
• Selection: only 5 to 7% of skins are suitable
• Output in 1995: about 200 parchments a month

Parchment, not paper

The book opens with the parchment maker's indignation at the word paper. He works skin, only skin. Parchment was invented around 200 BC in Asia Minor, spread throughout the Roman world and Europe, and remained the only material for books until rag paper.

Preparing the skins

Skins are bought from the tawer. The whitest and finest lamb, kid and goat skins are chosen; stillborn calf, fine as silk, makes vellum. They soak ten to fifteen days in lime, are rinsed in a wooden drum, and the least white spend a day in hydrogen peroxide.

They are then dehaired on a wooden beam with the cœurse, a half-moon knife with a slate blade.

Fleshing and finishing

Stretched with cord on wooden frames, the skins are fleshed with a fleshing knife: the most delicate step, which demands a precise angle and pressure to remove flesh without piercing the skin. The skin is then degreased, dried for one to fifteen days, sometimes wetted again, scraped and polished with gypsum stone.

Uses and heritage

The parchment of the 1990s went to bookbinding and restoration of old books, orthopaedics, drum and banjo heads, and furnishing. From 1850, Levroux makers also produced countless labels cut with a punch. The small Museum of Leather and Parchment in Levroux keeps the memory of the trade; Saint Roch is the patron of tawers and parchment makers.