Re: VMs: Counting sheep...?

[elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Zitat von Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> At 00:26 22/02/2004 +0100, Maurizio M. Gavioli wrote:
> >...you don't waste the skin of ca. 30 sheep on scribblings.
> 
> May I challenge you on this? According to the Beinecke, the VMs' physical 
> size is 225mm x 160mm: and, according to the rough size of modern sheepskin 
> rugs, I guess you should be able to cut about 14 VMs-sized folios (or 
> rather, 7 VMs-sized bifolios) from a single skin.
> 
> The VMs is foliated up to 116: even allowing a couple of extra sheep for 
> extra fold-outs, surely this would point to only about 10 sheep (rather 
> than 30)? Or were sheep much smaller back then? Or was it actually 
> goatskin? Or - as it's vellum, not parchment - is it more likely to be 
> calfskin?
> 
> All improved guesstimates gratefully received! :-)
> 
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 
>

Hi all,

IIRC, Merriam-Webster defines as parchment as sheep skin, while vellum is made 
of calf hide.

As for the prices, I also think I dimly remember that you can cut the skin 
lengthwise in several layers, ie you'd get more than one sheet out of one skin, 
but I'm uncertain about this.

http://www.evellum.com/ductus/demo/engine/ductus/frames/bibliography/talbot1958.
html

gives a price estimate for a book:

"Price of books: Parchment cost a halfpenny to twopence a skin; he price of 
copying a pecia was threepence or fourpence; gold letters cost threepence a 
piece; common paragraphs cost sixpence a hundred. A bill paid for a folio 
volume by John of Limoges in XXXX of two hundred pages totalled two pounds 
three and fourpence."

John of Limoges would have been early 14th century, and I take it that 
the "pound" in question would be pounds of silver.

http://renaissance.dm.net/compendium/6.html

gives a few comparisions for Elizabethan England, especially that four ducats 
would be worth a pound.

I'm not 100% sure that the pounds of Elizabethan England and 14th century 
France have the same value, and I'm not sure if the ducats are the same Rudolf 
paid, but if 600 ducats was the price for the VM, it certainly appears to be 
way more than an ordinary book would have been worth.

Cheers,

   Elmar, two cents and stuff



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