Further Reading about Parchment

        If you are interested in learning more about how parchment fits into the Pre-Modern economy, a good place to start would be these excerpts from two books about Renaissance cooking: Bill Buford, Heat (N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) 239-75 & 285-301, and Giovanni Rebora, Culture of the Fork Tr. Albert Sonnenfeld (N.Y.: Columbia UP, 2001) 40-51 [photocopies available if you give me advanced notice].  Why "cooking?  Think about producing books that, if they are big enough, require you to slaughter a calf for every folded leaf (i.e., four "pages").  The cowherd, the cook, the shoemaker, the tanner, and the parcheminiere or parchment maker all worked closely together.