Recycling and Parchment: Sustainability Part 3

The handling of paper today is no longer the same as it was a few years ago. It was often recycled or reused for other purposes. But what about parchment? What happened when it was cut up or dissolved for other purposes? Was it sold in single pieces as a mere money-making device or was it given a new meaning?

The idea that valuable documents and books were dismantled from parchment to be recycled or sold is outrageous to us today. The production of individual documents or even books meant an unbelievable expenditure of time and money, since for a single page of good quality one often needed an entire animal skin. But why did people disassemble writings that had an almost unbelievable material value? Find out!