On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age

A sweeping exploration of the shaping role of animal skins in written culture and human imagination over three millennia

“Richly detailed and illustrated. . . . An engaging exploration of book history.”—Kirkus Reviews

For centuries, premodern societies recorded and preserved much of their written cultures on parchment: the rendered skins of sheep, cows, goats, camels, deer, gazelles, and other creatures. These remains make up a significant portion of the era’s surviving historical record....