Vellum – It’s What’s for Writing!
Okay, so
that was a bad take-off on a popular commercial from several years ago. Okay,
maybe a couple of decades.
Anyway, I am
a middle aged grandfather. I have wanted to be a writer since I was 15 years
old, but it was not until 1992 that my first short story was published. And
nothing else happened until 2001. After that I have made steady progress in being
published. I’m not rich yet, but one can always hope.
So, why be
a writer? I am not sure but I have plenty of stories I want to tell. Though I
may never be rich or even well off, I will keep telling stories for as long as
I can.
Hand in
hand with the desire to tell stories is my love for books. It probably began
when I lived with my grandparents. One day I discovered a bunch of old books in
a bookcase. One of those was a large green book in which I first discovered the
names of Captain Cook, Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, and a host of
other explorers, all presented with black and white woodcut illustrations. But
what I remember most about the book was the thick, stiff pages—these were heavy
duty pages, not like today’s thin pages of paperback books or even textbooks.
Then too, that was a heavy duty book meant to last for awhile unlike most of
today’s books.
A thousand
years ago books used heavy duty pages meant to last for awhile—vellum. Though I
knew the terms “vellum” (parchment made from calf skin) and “parchment” (calf,
goat, or sheep skin), their meaning never truly sank in
<http://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/paper-vellum.html>. One
bright, momentous day not too long ago I discovered YouTube! Suddenly I had a
very visual world in front of me. Almost anything I typed into the search bar
produced some sort of video clip, usually around 1-3 minutes long.
It wasn’t
long before I learned a bit about how vellum is made—the soaking and washing of
the skins until the hair could be scraped away, followed by stretching on a
wooden frame. After the reverse side of the skin was scraped free of any remaining
meat, the skin was allowed to dry. Then it was “polished” with a stone.
Finally, the skin—officially called vellum—was cut out of the frame. Then began
the process by which the vellum was trimmed and prepared for writing,
illumination, and insertion into a book. As Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame would describe the process, “Fascinating.”
Medieval
society had its throw-away tools as we do, but more from necessity than design.
The scribes used bird feathers or reeds to write with. Writing needed ink,
which was made from natural materials. For illumination, the multi-colored
borders, oversize letters, and painted designs, a variety of materials were
blended to produce the needed colors. Again, “Fascinating.”
Truly, I am
in awe of the many scribes who tirelessly and patiently copied ancient texts
for monastic and private libraries. Imagine spending hours, day after day
whether summer or winter, sitting at a slanted wooden table and copying a book,
word for word, onto sheets of parchment. Perhaps their eyes drooped, or their
fingers and hands ached from such dedicated labor. But someone had to do it,
otherwise so much knowledge, so much history, would have been lost to the
future generations.
We owe a
lot to those tireless men and women, and to those a thousand years ago and more
who understood the importance of knowledge and the written word.
How parchment is made – Domesday – BBC Two
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-SpLPFaRd0
Medieval Manuscript Reproduction, Part 1: Pricking
(BygoneArts)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0akEes4NNw&feature=related
Medieval Manuscript Reproduction, Part 3a: Writing
(BygoneArts)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoTl5KFacBs&feature=relmfu
Medieval Manuscript Reproduction, Part 3c: Erasing a mistake
(BygoneArts)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=At0oB7d3xrs&feature=relmfu
Medieval Manuscript Reproduction, Part 5a: Painting an
Illuminated Letter (Bygone Arts)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa8gMb0YC68&feature=relmfu
Parchment and Paper – NYPL’s Three Faiths Scriptorium
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cupPN6kC14E&feature=relmfu
Pens, Paint-making, and Illumination – NYPL’s Three Faiths
Scriptorium
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIUQznSEPl0&feature=related
Writing – NYPL’s Three Faiths Scriptorium
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwUNxsEIP6I&feature=relmfu
PS: If you would like to hear a little “Medieval Rock,” I
recommend Mediaeval Baebes (Temptasyon; Salva Nos; and Blow Northern Wind) or
Blackmore’s Night (Just Call My Name; Under a Violet Moon; and Way to Mandalay
Bay). Yes, you can find some of their music on YouTube though sometimes there
are different versions.
BLURB: An engineer dedicated
to saving Venice from the rising seas, fails in his task. As a severe storm and
high tides threaten to burst through the flood walls, he resolves to remain in
Venice with a ghostly lover who claimed his heart years before. A woman from
his staff who loves him, does not evacuate, but remains to battle his ghostly
lover before he dies in a sinking Venice…
EXCERPT: The dull booms, like
the measured beats of a primeval heart, echoed through the gray drizzling
afternoon. Each boom was a countdown to a finely predicted cataclysm that man,
through his mistaken notion that he could control nature, had finally admitted
that he was powerless to hold back.
Dr. Gregorio Romano, tall, with dark brown hair and
watchful hazel eyes, stood before the open tall narrow window of his corner
office in the ornate, gilded Ducal Palace of the once La Serenissima Repubblica
di Venezia, the Most Serene Republic of Venice, and peered into the gray
drizzle toward the unseen barrier islands. The almost submerged islands of Lido
and Pellestrina, with their channels opening onto the Adriatic Sea, formed the
southeastern perimeter of the timeless Venetian lagoon. He listened to the echoing
booms of the rising, stormy Adriatic, and thought of a mythical, prehistoric
mother who gave birth to an imaginative species that dreamed of the impossible
and often made it happen. And now the mother was ready to take back one of the
greatest dreams of her children, ready to clasp it deep within her bosom.
“Gregorio?”
“Yes,” he replied as he gazed at the gray choppy waters
of the lagoon.
“Have you reconsidered? Are you ready to evacuate?”
“Not yet.” Gregorio tilted his head slightly as a sleek
dark gondola glided effortlessly across frothy, white-capped waters and halted
before the flooded wharf, the Riva degli Schiavoni, in front of the Palace.
Patrizia Celentano, the first and last female gondolier
of Venice, looked up at him and gave a friendly wave. He raised a hand in
return. Her gondola was a traditionally built and shaped boat, but rather than
the traditional black as required by law, she painted it a dark wine color.
Though she offered to erect a shelter to protect Gregorio from the elements, he
always preferred to ride in the open.
“We can evacuate you by force if necessary.”
“You won’t,” Gregorio smiled as he turned to face his
computer on the polished wooden desk. The broad, bearded face of his boss, Dr.
Niccolo Ricci, nodded in agreement. “There’s no need, and a helicopter is
scheduled to pick me up from the roof of my home tomorrow morning at 0600
hours.”
“The calculations might be incorrect. The gates could
break tonight...”
www.melange-books.com/authors/sshampton/GatesofMoses.html
BIOGRAPHY
SS Hampton, Sr. is a
full-blood Choctaw of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a divorced grandfather to
13 grandchildren, and a veteran of Operations Noble Eagle (2004-2006) and Iraqi
Freedom (2006-2007). He has served in the Army National Guard since October
2004, and holds the rank of staff sergeant. He is a published photographer and
photojournalist, an aspiring painter, and is studying for a degree in
photography and anthropology—hopefully to someday work in underwater
archaeology. His writings have appeared as stand-alone stories, and in
anthologies from Dark Opus Press, Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy, Melange
Books, Musa Publishing, MuseItUp Publishing, Ravenous Romance, and as
stand-alone stories in Horror Bound Magazine, Ruthie’s Club, Lucrezia Magazine,
The Harrow, and River Walk Journal, among others. As of December 2011, he
became the latest homeless Iraq war veteran in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wow, Stan, you have been one busy guy! You are full of interesting facts and your book sounds like a great one. I wish you tons of success and I want to thank you for stopping by to visit with me.
