20-04-2026, 04:07 PM
On parchment vs vellum: when I joined online Voynich research 10 years ago, I was only familiar with the general word "parchment". However, there was some pressure at the time to use the word "vellum", so I think a lot of people internalized that name. That's why you still see it used a lot in the context of the VM. I'm happy to use the term "parchment" though, if only because of its familiarity.
Regarding flawed parchment, there are indeed many instances: think of the famous holes and their creative repairs. Top-of-the-line skins shouldn't have (or easily get) holes in them. But could we really say that bad parchment was exclusively used by isolated communities? This sounds like there wouldn't be any lower-tier parchment available in urban environments. But shouldn't we expected writing substrates to be available in different qualities, just like any other commodity?
Regarding flawed parchment, there are indeed many instances: think of the famous holes and their creative repairs. Top-of-the-line skins shouldn't have (or easily get) holes in them. But could we really say that bad parchment was exclusively used by isolated communities? This sounds like there wouldn't be any lower-tier parchment available in urban environments. But shouldn't we expected writing substrates to be available in different qualities, just like any other commodity?