The skins of sheep, goats or calves processed for writing on both sides. The name comes from the city of Pergamum (Asia Minor) where an improved method of scraping and preparing leather was developed in the 2nd c. BCE. The introduction of parchment allowed both sides of the leather to be used as a smooth writing surface, which in turn led to the development of the codex that began to replace the more cumbersome & less efficient scroll as the preferred text format during the early years of the Christian movement. Since parchment was expensive, however, it was not generally used for Christian writings before the legalization of Christianity in the 4th c. CE.

Other On-line Resources:

• Parchment - classic descriptions of the preparation of parchment & image of a ms. page (from Timothy W. Seid's Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts).

• Making Manuscripts - video illustrating the classic art of mss. preparation from parchment making to binding (project of the Getty Museum now on YouTube).

• Parchment - article on the history & process of parchment making  (Wikipedia).