What is parchment?

Parchment

Parchment is the dried skin of goats, sheep or other animals, treated so that it can be written on.

If you had lived long ago, in medieval days, you might have read books whose pages were made of animal skins instead of paper.

The first books made of pages bound together in a cover were made of parchment.  This is a king of material made from the skin of goats, sheep, and other animals.

Because parchment is expensive to make, the parchment on which a book was written was often considered more valuable than its content.  Frequently the ink was erased so that the parchment could be reused.

By the 1500s, paper had replaced parchment for all but the most formal documents.  The important-looking paper on which the diploma you get when you graduate from school is usually printed is called “parchment paper.”

Parchment paper is a kind of paper that is treated to look almost like real parchment, it lasts fro many years, but it is not as expensive as parchment.-Dick Rogers