Parchment in Byzantine Manuscripts of the 11th and 12th Centuries: Characteristics and Use

The contribution is dedicated to the characteristics of the parchment used by Byzantine artisans; it exploits ‘peripheral’ information gathered as part of wider research into the underlying principles and layout techniques of parchment codices dating from the 11th and 12th centuries. The study addresses, in particular, the relationship between support quality (assessed on the basis of the frequency and distribution of defects—viz. holes and lisières (i.e. untrimmed edges)—and the gauging of sheet thickness), and the basic data for the characterisation of a codex (i.e. data, origin, content). Close study of the strategies adopted by artisans for the handling of defects also forms part of a general assessment of writing support quality.