Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting

Sarah Fiddyment; Bruce Holsinger; Chiara Ruzzier; Alexander Devine; Annelise Binois; Umberto Albarella; Roman Fischer; Emma Nichols; Antoinette Curtis; Edward Cheese; Matthew D. Teasdale; Caroline Checkley-Scott; Stephen J. Milner; Kathryn M. Rudy; Eric J. Johnson; Jirí Vnoucek; Mary Garrison; Simon McGrory; Daniel G. Bradley; Matthew J. Collins

doi:10.1073/pnas.1512264112

Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting

Sarah Fiddyment^*, Bruce Holsinger, Chiara Ruzzier, Alexander Devine, Annelise Binois, Umberto Albarella, Roman Fischer, Emma Nichols, Antoinette Curtis, Edward Cheese, Matthew D. Teasdale, Caroline Checkley-Scott, Stephen J. Milner, Kathryn M. Rudy, Eric J. Johnson, Jirí Vnoucek, Mary Garrison, Simon McGrory, Daniel G. Bradley, Matthew J. Collins

^*Corresponding author for this work

57 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Tissue-thin parchment made it possible to produce the first pocket Bibles: Thousands were made in the 13th century. The source of this parchment, often called "uterine vellum," has been a long-standing controversy in codicology. Use of the Latin term abortivum in many sources has led some scholars to suggest that the skin of fetal calves or sheep was used. Others have argued that it would not be possible to sustain herds if so many pocket Bibles were produced from fetal skins, arguing instead for unexpected alternatives, such as rabbit. Here, we report a simple and objective technique using standard conservation treatments to identify the animal origin of parchment. The noninvasive method is a variant on zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) peptide mass fingerprinting but extracts protein from the parchment surface by using an electrostatic charge generated by gentle rubbing of a PVC eraser on the membrane surface. Using this method, we analyzed 72 pocket Bibles originating in France, England, and Italy and 293 additional parchment samples that bracket this period. We found no evidence for the use of unexpected animals; however, we did identify the use of more than one mammal species in a single manuscript, consistent with the local availability of hides. These results suggest that ultrafine vellum does not necessarily derive from the use of abortive or newborn animals with ultrathin hides, but could equally well reflect a production process that allowed the skins of maturing animals of several species to be rendered into vellum of equal quality and fineness.

Original language	English
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	112
Issue number	49
Pages (from-to)	15066-15071
Number of pages	6
ISSN	0027-8424
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512264112
Publication status	Published - 8 Dec 2015

Keywords

Collagen
Mass spectrometry
Parchment
Pocket Bible
Vellum

Access to Document

10.1073/pnas.1512264112

Cite this

Fiddyment, S., Holsinger, B., Ruzzier, C., Devine, A., Binois, A., Albarella, U., Fischer, R., Nichols, E., Curtis, A., Cheese, E., Teasdale, M. D., Checkley-Scott, C., Milner, S. J., Rudy, K. M., Johnson, E. J., Vnoucek, J., Garrison, M., McGrory, S., Bradley, D. G., & Collins, M. J. (2015). Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(49), 15066-15071. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512264112

Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting. / Fiddyment, Sarah; Holsinger, Bruce; Ruzzier, Chiara et al.
In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 112, No. 49, 08.12.2015, p. 15066-15071.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Fiddyment, S, Holsinger, B, Ruzzier, C, Devine, A, Binois, A, Albarella, U, Fischer, R, Nichols, E, Curtis, A, Cheese, E, Teasdale, MD, Checkley-Scott, C, Milner, SJ, Rudy, KM, Johnson, EJ, Vnoucek, J, Garrison, M, McGrory, S, Bradley, DG & Collins, MJ 2015, 'Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 112, no. 49, pp. 15066-15071. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512264112

@article{746ce438112649898a8b7268196e5375,

title = "Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting",

abstract = "Tissue-thin parchment made it possible to produce the first pocket Bibles: Thousands were made in the 13th century. The source of this parchment, often called {"}uterine vellum,{"} has been a long-standing controversy in codicology. Use of the Latin term abortivum in many sources has led some scholars to suggest that the skin of fetal calves or sheep was used. Others have argued that it would not be possible to sustain herds if so many pocket Bibles were produced from fetal skins, arguing instead for unexpected alternatives, such as rabbit. Here, we report a simple and objective technique using standard conservation treatments to identify the animal origin of parchment. The noninvasive method is a variant on zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) peptide mass fingerprinting but extracts protein from the parchment surface by using an electrostatic charge generated by gentle rubbing of a PVC eraser on the membrane surface. Using this method, we analyzed 72 pocket Bibles originating in France, England, and Italy and 293 additional parchment samples that bracket this period. We found no evidence for the use of unexpected animals; however, we did identify the use of more than one mammal species in a single manuscript, consistent with the local availability of hides. These results suggest that ultrafine vellum does not necessarily derive from the use of abortive or newborn animals with ultrathin hides, but could equally well reflect a production process that allowed the skins of maturing animals of several species to be rendered into vellum of equal quality and fineness.",

keywords = "Collagen, Mass spectrometry, Parchment, Pocket Bible, Vellum",

author = "Sarah Fiddyment and Bruce Holsinger and Chiara Ruzzier and Alexander Devine and Annelise Binois and Umberto Albarella and Roman Fischer and Emma Nichols and Antoinette Curtis and Edward Cheese and Teasdale, {Matthew D.} and Caroline Checkley-Scott and Milner, {Stephen J.} and Rudy, {Kathryn M.} and Johnson, {Eric J.} and Jir{\'i} Vnoucek and Mary Garrison and Simon McGrory and Bradley, {Daniel G.} and Collins, {Matthew J.}",

year = "2015",

month = dec,

day = "8",

doi = "10.1073/pnas.1512264112",

language = "English",

volume = "112",

pages = "15066--15071",

journal = "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America",

issn = "0027-8424",

publisher = "The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America",

number = "49",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting

AU - Fiddyment, Sarah

AU - Holsinger, Bruce

AU - Ruzzier, Chiara

AU - Devine, Alexander

AU - Binois, Annelise

AU - Albarella, Umberto

AU - Fischer, Roman

AU - Nichols, Emma

AU - Curtis, Antoinette

AU - Cheese, Edward

AU - Teasdale, Matthew D.

AU - Checkley-Scott, Caroline

AU - Milner, Stephen J.

AU - Rudy, Kathryn M.

AU - Johnson, Eric J.

AU - Vnoucek, Jirí

AU - Garrison, Mary

AU - McGrory, Simon

AU - Bradley, Daniel G.

AU - Collins, Matthew J.

PY - 2015/12/8

Y1 - 2015/12/8

N2 - Tissue-thin parchment made it possible to produce the first pocket Bibles: Thousands were made in the 13th century. The source of this parchment, often called "uterine vellum," has been a long-standing controversy in codicology. Use of the Latin term abortivum in many sources has led some scholars to suggest that the skin of fetal calves or sheep was used. Others have argued that it would not be possible to sustain herds if so many pocket Bibles were produced from fetal skins, arguing instead for unexpected alternatives, such as rabbit. Here, we report a simple and objective technique using standard conservation treatments to identify the animal origin of parchment. The noninvasive method is a variant on zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) peptide mass fingerprinting but extracts protein from the parchment surface by using an electrostatic charge generated by gentle rubbing of a PVC eraser on the membrane surface. Using this method, we analyzed 72 pocket Bibles originating in France, England, and Italy and 293 additional parchment samples that bracket this period. We found no evidence for the use of unexpected animals; however, we did identify the use of more than one mammal species in a single manuscript, consistent with the local availability of hides. These results suggest that ultrafine vellum does not necessarily derive from the use of abortive or newborn animals with ultrathin hides, but could equally well reflect a production process that allowed the skins of maturing animals of several species to be rendered into vellum of equal quality and fineness.

AB - Tissue-thin parchment made it possible to produce the first pocket Bibles: Thousands were made in the 13th century. The source of this parchment, often called "uterine vellum," has been a long-standing controversy in codicology. Use of the Latin term abortivum in many sources has led some scholars to suggest that the skin of fetal calves or sheep was used. Others have argued that it would not be possible to sustain herds if so many pocket Bibles were produced from fetal skins, arguing instead for unexpected alternatives, such as rabbit. Here, we report a simple and objective technique using standard conservation treatments to identify the animal origin of parchment. The noninvasive method is a variant on zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) peptide mass fingerprinting but extracts protein from the parchment surface by using an electrostatic charge generated by gentle rubbing of a PVC eraser on the membrane surface. Using this method, we analyzed 72 pocket Bibles originating in France, England, and Italy and 293 additional parchment samples that bracket this period. We found no evidence for the use of unexpected animals; however, we did identify the use of more than one mammal species in a single manuscript, consistent with the local availability of hides. These results suggest that ultrafine vellum does not necessarily derive from the use of abortive or newborn animals with ultrathin hides, but could equally well reflect a production process that allowed the skins of maturing animals of several species to be rendered into vellum of equal quality and fineness.

KW - Collagen

KW - Mass spectrometry

KW - Parchment

KW - Pocket Bible

KW - Vellum

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949267028&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1512264112

DO - 10.1073/pnas.1512264112

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26598667

AN - SCOPUS:84949267028

SN - 0027-8424

VL - 112

SP - 15066

EP - 15071

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

IS - 49

ER -

Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this